Immigration Laws: February, 2002 - Number #16

China. China is expected to receive $40 billion in FDI in 2002, helping to continue a construction boom that adds factories as well as infrastructure, and draws migrants from inland provinces such as Anhui, Hunan, Henan, Hubei and Sichuan to coastal areas, where they earn RMB 10 ($1.25) a day, and often sleep on the concrete floor of large warehouses.

There are some 130 million internal migrants within China, and their willingness to work for low wages has helped China become the leading producer of many consumer goods. Shoe manufacturers in the city of Wenzhou, near Shanghai, dominate the global shoe industry.

However, migrants are beginning to strike for higher pay. In Dafeng, a city in a cotton-growing region 150 miles north of Shanghai, women at the Shuangfeng Textile Factory went on strike for two weeks in December 2001, protesting the bankruptcy of the factory. In 1996, workers were forced to buy shares with their savings-an average $500 to $600 a worker-to keep the factory operating, and in November 2001, the factory declared bankruptcy.

China is the world's leading coal producer, producing one billion tons a year; the US is a close second. There were about 10,000 deaths among eight million Chinese coal miners in 2001, compared to 30 in the US. A third of China's coal is mined in the impoverished mountainous Shanxi province in the north, where many private mines operate without permits.

Some Chinese firms hide assets and declare bankruptcy so that the managers can buy the firm cheaply, and this is what the workers in Dafeng suspected when $14 million turned out to be missing, including their stock investments and pension contributions. After the bankruptcy, the factory cut wages in half, to $25 to $40 a month, which prompted a strike. China removed the "freedom to strike" clause from its constitution in 1982, but has never formally banned strikes.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at an average of 9.7 per cent annually from 1980 to 2000. If China can achieve a seven percent growth rate to 2010, its GDP should be Rmb2 trillion (US$ 242 billion).

According to the Xinhua News Agency, fewer than half of the 320,000 Chinese students who have studied abroad since the country opened to the world in 1978 have returned to China. More graduates of foreign universities may return in 2002, as China is expected to grow while other economies grow much slower.

Hong Kong. Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal ruled in January 2002 that nearly all the 5,114 mainland Chinese migrants suing for the right to stay in the city must leave. Only migrants who arrived before January 29, 1999, the date of a court ruling granting residency to any mainland Chinese with at least one parent from Hong Kong, could stay. The January 29, 1999 ruling was later reversed by the Chinese government, which said residency would be granted only to children of a parent who was a legal Hong Kong resident at the time of the birth.

In the January 2002 ruling, the court said migrants who arrived before the return of Hong Kong by Britain to China on July 1, 1997 have the right to stay. Those who arrived after the handover, but before the January 29, 1999 decision, can stay at the discretion of the director of immigration. This may affect 200 migrants; the others are to leave by March 31, 2002. On January 21, Hong Kong's top immigration office said that his department will take all necessary steps to remove those who overstay without the right of abode when the March 31 grace period ends.

Some 150 mainlanders a day are allowed to immigrate to Hong Kong. Secretary for Security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said: "The community opposes influxes and relaxing immigration rules, particularly when the economy is down."

There were 235,120 foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong in December 2001, including155,790 Filipinos; 68,400 Indonesians; 7,000 Thais; and 3,930 others.

The Hong Kong government has increased arrests of illegal workers, especially those from mainland China, in order to protect local workers in the economic downturn. The immigration department conducted about 2,900 operations in 2001 and arrested more than 8,800 illegal workers and employers, indicating an increase of 39.2 per cent and 37.1 per cent respectively. Hong Kong unemployment is near a two-year high of 5.8 percent.

The Hong Kong government will extradite a former New York City shopkeeper, Cheng Chui-ping, also known as Big Sister Ping, wanted by the FBI for smuggling 3,000 Chinese migrants to the US between 1984 and 1994. If convicted, she could face a maximum term of life in prison.

Taiwan. Migrants in Taiwan usually live in dormitories provided by their employers next to the work site, or in private homes, if they are maids. Migrant policy is controlled by the Taiwan Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), and on November 9, 2001, the CLA allowed employers to include the cost of food and accommodation when determining if migrants are earning the minimum wage of NT$15,840 ($466) a month, set in 1998.

Most employers immediately began deducting NT$4,000 (US$116) a month. The CLA said that the cut in migrants' wages would be offset by a new prohibition on Taiwanese brokers charging migrants brokerage fees of NT$30,000 a person, but migrants would still have to pay NT$1,500 to NT$1,800 in "monthly service charges" to local brokers. In addition, brokers in the migrants' country of origin can charge NT$15,840 a migrant, the minimum wage, and Taiwan employers must pay brokerage fees to local agents if they want to employ foreign laborers.

Migrant advocates argue that, since migrants are now paying for their food and accommodation, they should have the right to decide where to live and eat.

The CLA reported that 315,712 migrants were employed in October 2001, including 106,021 foreign caregivers.

Taiwan levies employment stabilization fees on the 120,000 employers of migrants--NT$2,300 (US$65.75) to NT$5,000 for Chinese employers and to NT $10,000 for foreign employers. The fee for foreign nurses and care-givers was raised from NT$600 to NT$2,000 in 2002. Beginning in 2002, foreign workers are permitted to work in Taiwan for six years, up from three years.

Taiwan's revised Employment Service Law raises fines on employers who hire unauthorized foreign workers from NT$90,000 to between NT$150,000 and NT$750,000. Two violations within five years can lead to three-year prison term plus a fine of up to NT$1.2 million. Employers who assign their foreign employees to work for their friends or relatives or embark on jobs unlisted in formal working contracts will face fines ranging between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000. Taiwan is attempting to reduce the number of foreign workers by 15,000 a year.

The CLA in September 2001 proposed that migrants should be able to get married during their employment in Taiwan, and that Taiwanese employers should no longer be able to send pregnant workers home- this would end six-month pregnancy checks.

Taiwan is adding the word "Taiwan" to the front of the island's passports for the first time, along with its official title, the Republic of China.