Casos de pruebas de Caja Blanca para el módulo Nomencladores

Over the years, the OWP constraints for mainland wives and children of Hong Kong men have caused long periods of family separation that not only seriously disrupt family timetables (H. C.

Leung 2006), but also are cited as the root causes of social and familial problems, including high divorce rates, domestic violence, and child neglect (Ming Pao 2007c, 2009a and b). In order to

mitigate problems faced by cross-border split families, the PRC has gradually modified the OWP and TWP policies since 1997. To improve the OWP system faults, the PRC implemented a “60-30-60” sub-OWP quota allocation⁵⁹ and point system in order to assess and determine the eligibility and the order in which OWP applicants can migrate to Hong Kong based on objective criteria (Tong 2004). The point system is an accumulation mechanism to determine applicants’

waiting time and order to obtain an OWP. Although OWP approvals and allocations are processed by local and provincial authorities, the central government regulates the required number of points to grant an OWP so as to improve the consistency of quota allocation and transparency of the process. Today applicants in some provinces can check their point accumulation via telephone and even on the Internet (ibid.).

Over the past decade the required number of points for an OWP has gone down, meaning a reduction in the waiting time. Before 2000 mainland wives waited for ten years on average to obtain their OWP. Between 2000 and 2004 the waiting time dropped to six to seven years for wives in Guangdong Province and five years for those in other provinces. The former waited for a longer time because they needed to meet a higher level of required points due to the larger number of applicants from Guangdong. In 2005 the central government unified the waiting time for wives in all provinces to five years. In 2009 the required points were further reduced to shorten the waiting time to four years.⁶⁰

59 As of 2012 the “60-30-60” sub-OWP quota allocation is divided as follows: a daily quota of 60 OWPs is allocated to individuals of all ages holding a Certificate of Entitlement who are children of Hong Kong permanent residents and enjoy the right of abode in Hong Kong; 30 to spouses separated for more than ten years and their accompanying children; and the remaining 60 to other categories including spouses separated for less than ten years and their accompanying children, dependent children going to Hong Kong to join relatives, persons going to Hong Kong to take care of aging parents, dependent elderly people going to Hong Kong to join relatives, and others (e.g.

inheritance) (Ho 2004; Immigration Department 2012; Tong 2004).

60 In recent years only small numbers of mainland wives have waited for ten years or longer for an OWP. The Hong Kong authorities believe that most of these long-separated wives did not submit their OWP applications earlier and postponed their entry into Hong Kong due to personal reasons (Security Bureau 2009b).

In addition, in late 2002 the PRC relaxed the TWP system to facilitate mainland spouses to visit their families in Hong Kong more often. Previously, mainland spouses could only apply for the TWP Exit Endorsement for Visiting Relatives to go to Hong Kong twice a year, and were allowed to stay for a period of three months or less on each visit. Starting in November 2002 mainland spouses with valid marital ties to Hong Kong residents are allowed to recurrently apply for the endorsement throughout the year, meaning that they can stay in Hong Kong for recurring 90-day intervals until they receive a permanent OWP. When the endorsement expires, however, they must return to their legal place of residence in China to apply for endorsement renewal to re-enter Hong Kong. The relaxed TWP system is a double-edged sword. Although it facilitates mainland wives to visit their Hong Kong husbands more often, it simultaneously creates a mobile condition that requires the women to periodically cross the border for permit renewal, leading to new problems such as regular short-term family separations and difficulties in mothering (W. S. Chan 2011; see Chapter 3). To mitigate these problems, in December 2009 the central government introduced the One-year Multiple Exit Endorsement for Visiting Relatives, or commonly called One-year Multiple Exit Endorsement (OYMEE), which allows eligible mainland wives, who must have a valid marital status and the need to take care of young children in Hong Kong,⁶¹ and other individuals who have “special family difficulties,” to renew their exit endorsement in their hometown only once a year.⁶² However, by early 2012 this new policy had

61 The young child must be a Hong Kong citizen either by birthright or by moving to Hong Kong on the strength of OWP. In both cases, the mainland mother can only apply for the OYMEE after the child has already lived in Hong Kong for 180 days. Some local exit-entry authorities in the PRC require the child to have lived in Hong Kong for 180 consecutive days before the mother can submit her application. Others allow the child to accumulate the 180-day stay in Hong Kong while returning to the mainland at intervals (personal conversations with TWP wives 2011-2012).

62 The OYMEE only serves to reduce TWP wives’ physical burden of traveling back and forth to their PRC hometowns every three months. In accordance with the Hong Kong Immigration Ordinance, visitors can only stay in the territory for 90 days at a time. Therefore, TWP wives are still required to leave Hong Kong every 90 days to renew their visitor status. In most cases TWP wives simply cross the border to Shenzhen in Guangdong, and re-enter Hong Kong on the same day.

not yet been fully implemented in all provinces. Also, even though some provinces carried out the policy, many TWP wives encountered problems in their application (see Chapter 3).

In the following chapters, I will examine how the seemingly benevolent TWP policy has actually created new problems for Hong Kong-China families. I begin with the problems faced by TWP wives in their periodic endorsement renewal trips to China and their experiences in dealing with these problems.