居留權的商品化：台灣的商業移民市場

Commodification of Residency: An Analysis of Taiwan's Business Immigration Market

曾嬿芬(Yen-Fen Tseng)

《台灣社會研究季刊》 27期 (1997/09) Pp. 37-67

https://doi.org/10.29816/TARQSS.199709.0002

摘要

1980年代出現了一個全球性的移民市場，許多國家在這個移民市場內爭相吸引全球經濟菁英前往居留。這些國家提出各種商業移民方案，彼此競爭移民的人力與財力資本，其主要目標是要吸引香港和台灣的經濟菁英份子以及他們的資金。商業移民方案全圖以移民身份交換資本投資的方式，可以被視為是地主國為取得「全球資本供給系統」的一種捷徑。在這樣的演變下，某些國家的居留權逐漸被視為是一項提供給擁有資本的人，我將這樣的變化稱之為移民身份的商品化，藉著商品化這樣的概念，我企圖描述一個移民身份越來越容易為有財力的人所取得的過程。永久居留權逐漸變成是具有不同價格標籤的市場產品，它的價格全賴於地主國在世界體系中所佔的位置。本研究的目的是希望運用對於台灣商業移民的研究來檢視移民身份如何成為一個市場上的商品，以及移民市場的壟斷性質。然後，我也將論證，移民身份的商品化直接強化移民仲介在移民過程的重要性。

關鍵字

台灣移民 ； 商業移民方案 ； 移民仲介 ； 商品化

並列摘要

In the 1980s, a global immigration market where nation-states are competing with each other to attract potential business immigrants has emerged. Immigrant visas are ever more available to people who have financial resources and who are willing to invest in host countries, a process I conceptualize as ”commodification” of immigration channels. The scheme to attract capital investments in exchange the immigrant status is an invention that creates a shortcut for host countries to plug into a ”global capital supply system.” Various kinds of business migration programs are typical of such scheme. By utilizing a case study of Taiwanese business migration, this paper deliver a detailed analysis of the process of commodification of residency. The research has two goals: first, to analyze how residency became commodified and the monopolistic nature of residency market; second, to support my argument that business migration programs has strength ened he potential immigrants' dependency on private agencies instead of networks in the immigration process. The data collection mainly relies on in-depth interviews with immigration consultant firms and content analysis of immigration advertisements on newspapers.

並列關鍵字

Taiwanese Immigration ； Business Migration Programs ； Immigration Brokers ； Commodification