Birthright citizenship - should the USA/Canada continue this?

[jaymichaud]

I remember back during the Egyptian revolution in 2011, the Canadian government suddenly discovered that there were thousands of "Canadians” in Cairo who were demanding to "get home”.

There is also an entire cottage industry in British Columbia of "birthing houses" where Chinese women who wanted to give birth to their children in Canada could fly over, give birth, stay for pre- and post-natal care, then head back. The houses are openly advertised by agents in China and in Chinese language media.

Sure, it made sense in the 1800s when it took a long and dangerous journey by sea to reach the New World, and the chances of you ever returning to your country of origin were slim to none. However now that you can cross the Atlantic in 6 hours, and at the very most you will need a 90 day tourist visa, is birthright citizenship still relevant in the 21st century?

[mileslunn]

I support it as while it can be abused there are ways to stop it thus us not issuing visas to pregnant people unless return ticket is well before expected due date thus ending birth tourism.  My reason for supporting birth right is Canada and US were built on immigration not a dominant ethnicity so in creates two classes between those born to Canadian/American parents and those born to foreign parents.  At very least could follow Australian model which is no birthright but if at age 10 still living in Australia, you automatically become a citizen.  Thing that needs to be avoided is where someone lives all their life in country but is still not a citizen.

[Upper Canada Tory]

I have mixed views on this. The unfortunate reality of birthright citizenship is that it can easily be abused through things like birth tourism, but another reality is that in Canada or the US where a lot of people are born to foreign-born parents, it is bureaucratically the simplest system to have.

If let's say we were to scrap birthright citizenship, with what would we replace it? All the possible answers are arbitrary. One possibility is to make it only for children of parents who have legal status inside the country. This would not stop birth tourism, because most people who engage in birth tourism have legal status in the country, however it may be on a temporary tourist visa.

On the other hand, we could make the requirements stricter; for example, the law could be that only children of permanent residents and citizens get citizenship. However, this would make life harder for Canadian-born children of people who came here on work visas but then decided to stay and become PRs and citizens eventually. They would have to go through the bureaucratic process of naturalization despite being born and having lived their whole lives here, and the government would have to process all of these applications.

If there is a better system, I'm open to it, but I'm unsure what it is.

In the case of the US, BTW, changing birthright citizenship would require a constitutional amendment, but that's a whole different story.

[mileslunn]

I have mixed views on this. The unfortunate reality of birthright citizenship is that it can easily be abused through things like birth tourism, but another reality is that in Canada or the US where a lot of people are born to foreign-born parents, it is bureaucratically the simplest system to have.

If let's say we were to scrap birthright citizenship, with what would we replace it? All the possible answers are arbitrary. One possibility is to make it only for children of parents who have legal status inside the country. This would not stop birth tourism, because most people who engage in birth tourism have legal status in the country, however it may be on a temporary tourist visa.

On the other hand, we could make the requirements stricter; for example, the law could be that only children of permanent residents and citizens get citizenship. However, this would make life harder for Canadian-born children of people who came here on work visas but then decided to stay and become PRs and citizens eventually. They would have to go through the bureaucratic process of naturalization despite being born and having lived their whole lives here, and the government would have to process all of these applications.

If there is a better system, I'm open to it, but I'm unsure what it is.

In the case of the US, BTW, changing birthright citizenship would require a constitutional amendment, but that's a whole different story.

Same reason I am for keeping it and in US pretty much impossible to change due to constitution, Canada a bit easier.  Only one that might work is Australian system which says anyone born in country who is still there by 10th birthday automatically gains citizenship but even that might have issues too.

[Fuzzy Bear]

For those who are legally here, yes.

For those who are illegally here, no.

[West_Midlander]

For those who are legally here, yes.

For those who are illegally here, no.

If birthright citizenship is limited to the children of legal residents then it practically does not exist since it is based on the citizenship of (the) parent(s).

[Ferguson97]

For those who are legally here, yes.

For those who are illegally here, no.

This doesn't make any sense. If they are born on American soil, then they are by definition, "here legally" because they are not immigrants.

Do you mean if their parents are here legally?

[Sol]

For those who are legally here, yes.

For those who are illegally here, no.

I'm aware that you likely won't understand this perspective, but I think it's quite unfair to uproot and essentially ruin someone's life for something their parents did.

[Fuzzy Bear]

For those who are legally here, yes.

For those who are illegally here, no.

I'm aware that you likely won't understand this perspective, but I think it's quite unfair to uproot and essentially ruin someone's life for something their parents did.

I would not be opposed to such people becoming permanent residents.  But not citizenship.  Not after how Biden has effectively stopped any meaningful enforcement of immigration laws