Definition of the Community

Taiwan has undergone social and demographic changes as a result of migration. Taiwan is a territory of China's and Japan's southeast coasts. Furthermore, the nation has a long tradition of immigration motivated by construction needs (Ji-ping np). Taiwanese immigrants are people who have absolute or partial Taiwanese ancestry. More of them left their homes in the 1960s and 1970s and have remained in the country due to the existence of various resources such as education and jobs, democracy and independence, and the fact that Taiwan is currently experiencing political turmoil. Taiwanese who immigrated to the country in the 1970s brought their families with them and developed a Diaspora identity. Currently, there are over 258,000 Taiwanese immigrants residing in the United States (Ji-ping np). The statistic represent about 0.9% of the 40 million people living in America making them the 24th largest immigrant group in the U.S. Nearly, half of the Taiwanese immigrant reside in California while a quarter live in Los Angeles. However, there have been numerous case laws and legislations that have been passed that affect the group presently (Ji-ping np).
Laws that Related the Taiwanese Immigrants
The Immigration and Naturalization Act is one of the laws that have affected Taiwanese immigrants. The bill was signed in 1965 and provided pass for individuals from Asia. Most of the Asians including Taiwanese had been barred from entering United States by act such as Chinese Exclusion Act (Jie and Batalova np). Passage of the legislations saw more than 70,000 Taiwanese immigrate in the country. The policy was enhanced by the Immigration Act enacted in the same year which changed the Taiwanese population in the United States. In 1950s, only 6% of the individuals were Taiwanese. However, by 2000s, the group formed one of the largest populations in the U.S (Jie and Batalova np). More importantly, the law enables non-citizen to enter the country lawfully either by receiving temporal or permanent admission. The law allowed Taiwanese and other immigrant received equal recognition and treatment as well as access to basic amenities. For example, they can use social programs like Medicaid. At the same time, most of the individuals have received education in America from numerous prestigious organizations (Jie and Batalova np). At the same time, the act has improved their income and life expectancy a part from attaining good socioeconomic status.
Presently, more than 2 million businesses are owned by Asian-American with 16% being Taiwanese (Kimberly np). Majority of them are involved in food and accommodation services sector. Further, most of the Taiwanese started businesses and many have working in white collar jobs. Currently, Taiwanese are considered part of the individuals with diverse education background. Statistics recorded in 2014 indicates that the community is known to be among those with individuals that posses master’s, doctoral and professional degrees. 69.4% of the immigrants have attained high school diploma. Similarly, more than three-quarters won homes in the United States. Present figures demonstrate that 52% of the Taiwanese immigrants are home owners (Kimberly np). Further, the American Immigration Act 1990 increased the number of Taiwanese in the country as it allowed establishment of employment, family and diversity-based programs. Before 1990, there was minor immigration of Taiwanese to the United States. After the enactment of the law, the country saw a considerable increase in the number of Taiwanese students coming to study in U.S. The approaches raised the number of legal immigrant in the United States, especially, for Europe and Asia. On the other hand, the act led to family reunification under the family-based visa category. The government became committed to ensuring reunion of family members through the plan as it allow children, spouses and sibling to receive visa or lawful permanent residency (Kimberly np).
However, there has been establishment of case law and bill that impact Taiwanese immigrant negatively. According to Kimberly (2015), development of Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act (RAISE), an immigration bill endorsed by the current president Influence Taiwanese welfare adversely (Kimberly np). The Act limits entry into the country and eliminates prioritization of green cards for adults. RAISE is expected to affect the Asian-American communities as one of the fasted growing racial group in the United States whose two-thirds are immigrants. Most people from Taiwan come to the U.S through the family-based system. In other words, people that visit the country from Taiwan for employment achieve their goal their family-based system. The bill is anticipated to cut over 88,000 visas each year cutting more than 673,000 people who received green cards. The restrictions affect the Asian-Americans more than other groups because the law functions as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Therefore, policy is likely to prevent individual from reuniting with their families currently residing in the U.S (Kimberly np). Similarly, most Taiwanese who applied to be sponsor members have been experiencing separation from their families because of visa backlog. The bill will keep more immigrants away from their families. As such, one can see that the current immigration reforms affect Taiwanese’s social life negatively.


Current Status of the Community
The community require development of policies such as the Dreamers Act that allows a person to acquire conditional permanent resident status for up to eight years. The approach is important because it would enable Taiwanese enter the United States knowing they could be admitted to the institution of higher learning (Jie and Jeanne nd). Similarly, there is need for establishing policies that could foster immigrants’ ability to receive lawful permanent residence and employment. Although thre should be minimal immigration requirements for one to qualify, they should be too strict to hamper individuals from reuniting with their families. Additionally, naturalization is fundamental which would enable people to obtain green Cards. Even though many of the present legislation support immigration of Taiwanese to the United States, there is a need to establish more policies to counteract those that affect immigrant adversely.
Conclusion
Indeed, Taiwanese were unable to immigrate to the United States before 1965 because of laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act. However, 1960s and 70s saw increased number of Taiwanese immigrant due to the development of removal of earlier policies and enactment of American Immigration Act 1965 and 1990. The laws gave Taiwanese the change to move to the U.S for various socioeconomic reasons for example, acquisition of education. At the same time, people were able to unit with their families at the new regulation enabled individuals to receive green cards through family-based systems. Currently, there are over 258,000 Taiwanese immigrants residing in the United States. On the other sides, immigration reform enacted recently by the current government of U.S have stagnated the number of immigrants to the country. Therefore, there is a need to develop policies such as Dreamer Act to support the welfare of Taiwanese as well as other immigrants living in the United States.
Works Cited
Ji-ping, Lin. “Traditional and progress: Taiwanese’s evolving migration reality.” Immigration Policy Institute, Jan. 24, 2012, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/tradition-and-progress-taiwans-evolving-migration-reality/ Accessed Nov. 20 2017
Jie, Zong and Jeanne Batalova. “ Chinese immigrant in the United States.” Immmigrant Policy Institute, Sep 29 2017, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/chinese-immigrants-united-states/ Accessed Nov. 20 2017
Kimberly, Yam. “Asian-American have a lot to lose if GOP legal immigration bill is passed experts.” Aug. 6, 2017, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/raise-act-asian-americans_us_598369ade4b0cb15b1bd456c Accessed Nov. 20 2017