Asymmetrical Social Incorporation: Exploring State Regulation of Dual Membership in Cross-Strait Migration
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Chen, Hui-Yu
Abstract
The entitlement of citizenship is the politics of belonging. By defining citizens from non-citizens, the nation states come to establish the boundary of belonging: within the boundary, there is “we-group”, and outside the boundary there is ""others-group."" Therefore, citizenship by nature is a form of ""social closure"", as a means for the national states to maintain its sovereignty. However, in the context of globalization, people’s movement across territorial boundaries impacts the traditional regime of national citizenship. The nation states must respond to the insufficient social security occurred to immigrants due to their transnational movement. The concept of ""citizenship"" no longer meets the demand of our time, and therefore is replaced by the concept of ""membership."" By separating the concept of ""membership"" from the concept of “citizenship,"" the immigrants are identified as ""members"" rather than ""citizens"" of the local society, but still are entitled to have some degree of civil rights. The importance of holding a full citizenship of a country gradually diminishes, and what is more important for the immigrants is to be granted with the right of long-term residency, which allows the immigrants have certain economic and social rights. In the context of globalization, the citizenship structure on both sides of Taiwan Strait is confronted with the same challenges. However, the overlapping sovereignty on both sides of Taiwan Strait complicates the issues further. Taiwan and China give different status and rights to migrants across the strait from other foreigners who immigrate to Taiwan or mainland China. This study attempts to take the membership of cross-strait migrants as the research subject, and explores what kinds of regulation and incorporation policies the governments on both sides of Taiwan Straits should respectively adopt to shape special status of cross-strait migrants. This study adopts the theoretical framework of Tomas Hammar that distinguishes immigration policy into two parts: regulation policy of the “external border” such as entry, exit of the country and the residence of immigrants, and the management policy of “internal border” such as the right to work, health insurance, pension insurance, and social assistance to the immigrants. This study attempts to observe the membership of the cross-strait migrants with an overview of these policies of both sides. The main findings in this study are as follows: Firstly, an asymmetrical framework exists on two sides of Taiwan Strait incorporating the people from the other side. On the one hand, Taiwan regulates the people from mainland China much strictly than from other countries. On the other hand, at the beginning mainland China gave aliens with no significant difference treatment between those who come from Taiwan and from other countries, but gradually the difference is more and more significant, even toward the direction of ""super Most-Favored-Nation Treatment"" or ""National Treatment."" Secondly, generally speaking, the incorporation policy in the context of globalization is affected by two criteria: the first is the contribution to the local economy, and the second is based on family relationship. Taiwan''s policy has been largely adhering to the second criterion. As for the first criterion, Taiwan’s government is trying to exclude the interference of political power, and with a more rational attitude to accept the people from mainland China. In contrast, mainland China’s policy is gradually moving beyond the restriction of the two criteria, and formulating the ""cross-strait a pro"" attitude to accept all identity categories of Taiwanese. Thirdly, in regulating territorial boundaries the governments of both sides make a concession in facing the forces of global market and talent competition. By revising the immigration laws, both sides permit investment and skilled immigrants to engage in professional or business activities. However, the immigration laws on both sides on the one hand are revised to deregulate, on the other hand are subjected by new regulations under executive review and administrative discretion. This is why the control of external border is highly influenced by the considerations of politics and national security. Fourthly, the both sides of Taiwan Strait take ""household residency membership"" as a mechanism for the entitlement of civil rights. Making initial household registration is the requirement to get citizenship. Because of the overlapping sovereignty of two sides, the legal systems of both sides often deliberately avoid the ""nationality"" of cross-strait migrants. Whether in Taiwan or mainland China, getting substantial citizenship is based on the household registration. On both sides ""household residency membership"" is the basis for identification and for the allocation of national resources. Fifthly, citizenship, as a mechanism to distinguish ""we-group"" and ""others-group,"" has no fundamental change in the trend of globalization. However, the more and more loosening definition of ""we-group"" enlarges the range of ""we-group."" For different rights, the governments of both sides have established different range of ""we-group."" On the regulation of territorial boundaries and the right to work, the political consideration of construction of nationhood is the main normative basis on both sides, and the divergence of cognition about construction of nationhood (namely, one side takes the other side as its own, but the other side doesn’t) is the fundamental reason for shaping the asymmetrical framework of the two sides of Taiwan Strait. On health insurance, pension insurance, and social assistance, the political consideration has been gradually replaced by the economic consideration. The policies of immigrants’ social security on both sides are converging. For contributory benefits, nationality or household register are basically not required as necessary qualifications. As for non-contributory benefits or contributory benefits that need more financial input from the government, nationality or household register are still necessary qualifications. With mainland China playing an increasingly important role in the international trade system, if the asymmetrical framework of the two sides of Taiwan Strait remains, it may cause negative impact on Taiwan''s national competitiveness. This study suggests that Taiwan''s government should eliminate discriminatory treatment against mainland people to guide cross-strait relations toward normal relations between two political entities, and seize the opportunity to entitle mainland people to certain civil rights to strengthen supervision and management on them, in trying to strike a balance between free movement of population and national security in the trend of regional economic integration.
Subjects
citizenship
membership
incorporation regime
cross-strait migrants
immigration policy
civil rights
social security
SDGs
Type
thesis
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