Authorities in Taiwan have decided to permit foreign university students to stay longer after graduation in a legal way.
Through the new changes that aim to help further economic growth, Taiwan could see a total of 200,000 new employees by 2023, VisaGuide.World reports.
The decision announced on the first day of the new year was confirmed by a spokesperson from the National Immigration Agency. The former regulation allowed graduates to remain for only six months to a year.
The new changes came in a fight against the labor shortage that Taiwan is dealing with as a result of the declining and ageing population.
In May last year, Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency said increasing the limit to two years “would quickly solve the labor shortage issue.”
Taiwan is dealing with a shortage of workers in fields like manufacturing, retail, hospitality, semiconductors, food services, and construction, according to an associate at the 104 Job Bank in Taipei, Sherry Chiang.
The number of available jobs in Taiwan surged from 555,000 in early 2020 to more than 1 million in December. However, on average, there is only one local applicant for every two positions.
Based on a study conducted recently, 86 percent of international students in Taiwan are willing to seek or work on the island after their graduation, as reported on its website by the government’s Overseas Community Affairs Council.
National Development Council head Kung Ming said in September 2022 that Taiwan would try to attract a total of 400,000 mostly white-collar international workers by 2032, with about half expected to come through the island’s universities.
The majority of students in Taiwan come from Southeast Asia due to Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy, which is aimed at building closer economic ties with a group of 18 states, taking into account ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
According to a report from the South China Morning Post, Taiwan’s foreign student population reached a record high of a total of 130,000 in 2019, before the spread of the Coronavirus and its new variants, with a total of 63,000 pursuing degrees. In 2021, the number stood at 17,000, and in 2022, it was 19,000.
Hong Kong already permits international students to stay for a period of up to two years after graduation. At the same time, Japan created a visa framework last year that could permit international graduates to stay in this territory for more than two years.