On Thursday 26th January, Dr Isabelle Cheng of the University of Portsmouth’s School of Language and Area Studies gave a talk about the notion of national sovereignty as an ‘organised hypocrisy’ (Krasner 1999). Isabelle discussed migrants, mostly women, who marry Taiwanese residents needing to surrender their existing citizenship if they are to obtain residency in Taiwan. Whilst this is not a unique situation, what renders it particularly remarkable is the lack of international recognition for Taiwan as a state (and therefore of any kind of Taiwanese citizenship). Such migrants therefore become, in effect, stateless. As the creation of statelessness for individuals is prohibited under international law, it is therefore unclear why many nation-states allow their citizens to surrender their citizenship when moving to Taiwan.
This situation becomes particularly acute on the ground for those migrants who, for whatever reason, do not obtain residency in Taiwan and then become stateless. This can lead to severe hardships, in Taiwan or their country of origin, for migrants and any direct family affected. Further hypocrisies are highlighted by the special dispensation for dual ‘citizenship’ which was negotiated by the Japanese government for their citizens.
Isabelle and the audience discussed the questions raised by this phenomena in relation to nationalism, citizenship, institutions and bureaucracy. Thank you to Isabelle for providing such a fascinating discussion which looks likely to lead to further avenues of research.