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I see what has been happening in Hong Kong.
http://www.hkdigit.net/2011/10/hk-march-against-mainland-chinese-pregnant-mothers/
With the expansion of travel from Mainland China to Taiwan granted by the KMT, how long will it be before a lot of mothers-to-be start planting their PRC children in Taiwan?
http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/05/06/chinas-wealth-drain/#axzz1lfWNzC00
In the past decade the number of babies born to mainland women who are not married to Hong Kongers jumped from 620 in 2001 to 32,563 last year.
"Honey, I'm going into labor. Get me on a plane to Taipei, NOW!"
(We can talk about how "all Taiwanese became Chinese" at a later date... OK?)
Answer
I am no immigration law expert, but from what I know, the short answer is yes.
The situation in Hong Kong is that pregnant Chinese women are going to Hong Kong to have children, leading to locals to stage a protest, arguing that public health resources are directed toward non-local people. As a result, public hospitals are crowded out, forcing Hong Kong women to seek higher priced medical service at private hospitals. While the number of pregnant women in mainland China traveling to Hong Kong have increased, it is thought that most of them are wealthy enough to buy their way into Hong Kong, the financial barrier is still great for most mainland Chinese.
From the public health perspective, Taiwan is already facing this kind of pressure, because Taiwanese doctors have all but fled the more traditional roles (pediatrics, surgical units, internal medicine, and obstetrics/gynecology), more and more doctors are seeking to practice in cosmetic surgery, which is much more lucrative in terms of effort and income ratio. If pregnant mainland Chinese come to Taiwan to have their babies, it is bound to have some impact on Taiwan's medical resources.
I know you are concerned about the issue of immigration, more so than the problems with Taiwan's public health. So here is my opinion.
There's a gradual increase of Taiwanese marrying mainland Chinese, and vice versa, happening in recent years, the government have set up tight control over who gets to enter Taiwan from mainland China. However, it does not seem there are tight rules over pregnant women seeking to have their babies in Taiwan. The same issue with having babies elsewhere, in Hong Kong or Taiwan, is the financial barrier. Taiwan's universal health care does not cover foreign individuals, therefore patients are required to pay at the full cost, which is quite a heavy sum.
Now if the situation is that PRC parents coming to Taiwan to have children, the current rule is that you still have to apply for legal status, which may or may not be approved. If one of the parents is a Taiwanese national, then you have a greater chance of being approved, providing that you have proof of parental DNA relationship. Both situations above require many paperwork, and is not easily fulfilled. To be honest, I think most mainland Chinese prefer to immigrate to the US, given that they can afford it. By the way, Hong Kong people also have a greater chance of being accepted to Taiwan.
In my opinion, Taiwan can probably take advantage of mainland Chinese immigrating to Taiwan. First of all, communist China will probably hesitate to raise a war with Taiwan, because it will cause casualties on their side. This might ease the tension across the straits. Secondly, to a raise a child in Taiwan is no small feat, Taiwan can harvest a lot of taxes off those rich mainland Chinese parents. Lastly, immigrating to Taiwan is very complicated, though I cannot definitively tell you there are no loopholes, I will tell you that once a mainland Chinese baby go Taiwanese, there's no turning back, because our system plainly works better.
I am no immigration law expert, but from what I know, the short answer is yes.
The situation in Hong Kong is that pregnant Chinese women are going to Hong Kong to have children, leading to locals to stage a protest, arguing that public health resources are directed toward non-local people. As a result, public hospitals are crowded out, forcing Hong Kong women to seek higher priced medical service at private hospitals. While the number of pregnant women in mainland China traveling to Hong Kong have increased, it is thought that most of them are wealthy enough to buy their way into Hong Kong, the financial barrier is still great for most mainland Chinese.
From the public health perspective, Taiwan is already facing this kind of pressure, because Taiwanese doctors have all but fled the more traditional roles (pediatrics, surgical units, internal medicine, and obstetrics/gynecology), more and more doctors are seeking to practice in cosmetic surgery, which is much more lucrative in terms of effort and income ratio. If pregnant mainland Chinese come to Taiwan to have their babies, it is bound to have some impact on Taiwan's medical resources.
I know you are concerned about the issue of immigration, more so than the problems with Taiwan's public health. So here is my opinion.
There's a gradual increase of Taiwanese marrying mainland Chinese, and vice versa, happening in recent years, the government have set up tight control over who gets to enter Taiwan from mainland China. However, it does not seem there are tight rules over pregnant women seeking to have their babies in Taiwan. The same issue with having babies elsewhere, in Hong Kong or Taiwan, is the financial barrier. Taiwan's universal health care does not cover foreign individuals, therefore patients are required to pay at the full cost, which is quite a heavy sum.
Now if the situation is that PRC parents coming to Taiwan to have children, the current rule is that you still have to apply for legal status, which may or may not be approved. If one of the parents is a Taiwanese national, then you have a greater chance of being approved, providing that you have proof of parental DNA relationship. Both situations above require many paperwork, and is not easily fulfilled. To be honest, I think most mainland Chinese prefer to immigrate to the US, given that they can afford it. By the way, Hong Kong people also have a greater chance of being accepted to Taiwan.
In my opinion, Taiwan can probably take advantage of mainland Chinese immigrating to Taiwan. First of all, communist China will probably hesitate to raise a war with Taiwan, because it will cause casualties on their side. This might ease the tension across the straits. Secondly, to a raise a child in Taiwan is no small feat, Taiwan can harvest a lot of taxes off those rich mainland Chinese parents. Lastly, immigrating to Taiwan is very complicated, though I cannot definitively tell you there are no loopholes, I will tell you that once a mainland Chinese baby go Taiwanese, there's no turning back, because our system plainly works better.
How do senior citizens deal with ends meet during the recession(2011)?
YokoProduc
Hi, I'm doing a speech on why senior citizens are practically forced to work and why they shouldn't. I know that in 2009 the recession pulled out senior citizens from retirement to meet ends meet, put food on the table, pay for medication, childcare, and etc. but is there any other good reasons why? and what happened to all their benefits? I don't really understand how state pensions and social security benefits and stuff like that work. Please explain and help me.
if $1200 a month is all you get during a bad economy, than doesn't that put you in a position wanting to work more? that's my question. How are you able to pay for medication and etc. Isn't this why senior citizens need to work?
Answer
Hope this helps. I retired after working for the Federal Government for 4 decades. I was lucky when I retired and have a good life. When my parents worked, everybody made enough money to have a house, eat OK and make ends met even if they were not rich. then in my generation born in the 1940's and 1950's (Baby Boomers) we started out Great! we could buy new cars and houses and life was good. But it got worse over the years.
It was a slow erosion of benefits. They started to take a little away each few years.
1. Businesses started to cut work hours. If they did not work 40 hours a week then the business did not have to pay them benefits and kept the money for themselves.
2. People were told to put money into a 401K accounts and it would be a great retirement but 401K's were paid in the stock market so when prices went down in the stock market the retirement funds went down too. For example, If you have $200,000 in your retirement account and the market collapsed so your account was not worth $100,000 then you knew it would not be enough for you to live all your life retired so you had to keep working.
3. Companies went bankrupt. People were laid off. Can't pay for the house so the bank takes their house back. Maybe you still have a job and paying for your house but you can't sell it because lots of the neighbors lost their houses and they are all empty so nobody will buy yours either and it isn't worth much anymore.
4. Health care companies got greedy. costs went very high. Years ago, people just paid the doctor or hospital and didn't need insurance. Costs are too high now. Easy $200,000 just for one hospital visit now or more.
5. State governments make promises to get votes and can't pay for promises. Like California where I lived so long. They are broke but still pay for free college. The governor, Jerry Brown, in California just signed a law that Mexicans coming illegally into the state can go to free college! who is going to pay? The state can't afford it so they just cut the poor state workers benefits and retirement. people suffer. Why would the state make the Americans work to pay for illegal Mexicans to have free school! crazy things like that are going on and no one changes it.
6. Social Security is still there and it has not changed too much. Now people get about $1200 a month but that isn't much to live on If you don't get some other money from a company retirement or 401K or savings. t will be worse in the future. Bad planning so money coming in from workers doesn't cover the payments to the retired.
You can see that it is a very big problem that you are giving a speech on and it was not caused by any one thing. It was not sudden. It was very slow and took decades. that's why most of us didn't see it coming and didn't plan differently. We trusted the system!
It was all either BAD PLANNING OR GREED. Baby Boomers had too much trust. We counted on companies and governments and not ourselves. We trusted 401K's and other retirement accounts and shouldn't have. We should have questioned the politicians and demanded they stop spending so much. We should have saved the money into our own bank accounts so no one can take it from us. We should have been careful to work for big companies and watch what they did to us or work for ourselves. Now the recession hits just as we get old enough to retire and we are in trouble. Many of us can't live and must work when we are too old and it is a shame.
My advice to the young? Trust yourself. Save some money from everything you get and buy gold with it. Even just a little each year. Save it in a very good place or bank security box and tell no body! Buy a small house in a very good neighborhood and pay it off as fast as possible so the bank can' t ever take it. And when you are old like me you will be comfortable and can travel and sleep all you want!
Hope this helps. I retired after working for the Federal Government for 4 decades. I was lucky when I retired and have a good life. When my parents worked, everybody made enough money to have a house, eat OK and make ends met even if they were not rich. then in my generation born in the 1940's and 1950's (Baby Boomers) we started out Great! we could buy new cars and houses and life was good. But it got worse over the years.
It was a slow erosion of benefits. They started to take a little away each few years.
1. Businesses started to cut work hours. If they did not work 40 hours a week then the business did not have to pay them benefits and kept the money for themselves.
2. People were told to put money into a 401K accounts and it would be a great retirement but 401K's were paid in the stock market so when prices went down in the stock market the retirement funds went down too. For example, If you have $200,000 in your retirement account and the market collapsed so your account was not worth $100,000 then you knew it would not be enough for you to live all your life retired so you had to keep working.
3. Companies went bankrupt. People were laid off. Can't pay for the house so the bank takes their house back. Maybe you still have a job and paying for your house but you can't sell it because lots of the neighbors lost their houses and they are all empty so nobody will buy yours either and it isn't worth much anymore.
4. Health care companies got greedy. costs went very high. Years ago, people just paid the doctor or hospital and didn't need insurance. Costs are too high now. Easy $200,000 just for one hospital visit now or more.
5. State governments make promises to get votes and can't pay for promises. Like California where I lived so long. They are broke but still pay for free college. The governor, Jerry Brown, in California just signed a law that Mexicans coming illegally into the state can go to free college! who is going to pay? The state can't afford it so they just cut the poor state workers benefits and retirement. people suffer. Why would the state make the Americans work to pay for illegal Mexicans to have free school! crazy things like that are going on and no one changes it.
6. Social Security is still there and it has not changed too much. Now people get about $1200 a month but that isn't much to live on If you don't get some other money from a company retirement or 401K or savings. t will be worse in the future. Bad planning so money coming in from workers doesn't cover the payments to the retired.
You can see that it is a very big problem that you are giving a speech on and it was not caused by any one thing. It was not sudden. It was very slow and took decades. that's why most of us didn't see it coming and didn't plan differently. We trusted the system!
It was all either BAD PLANNING OR GREED. Baby Boomers had too much trust. We counted on companies and governments and not ourselves. We trusted 401K's and other retirement accounts and shouldn't have. We should have questioned the politicians and demanded they stop spending so much. We should have saved the money into our own bank accounts so no one can take it from us. We should have been careful to work for big companies and watch what they did to us or work for ourselves. Now the recession hits just as we get old enough to retire and we are in trouble. Many of us can't live and must work when we are too old and it is a shame.
My advice to the young? Trust yourself. Save some money from everything you get and buy gold with it. Even just a little each year. Save it in a very good place or bank security box and tell no body! Buy a small house in a very good neighborhood and pay it off as fast as possible so the bank can' t ever take it. And when you are old like me you will be comfortable and can travel and sleep all you want!
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