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Definition 2024


birth_tourism

birth tourism

English

Noun

birth tourism (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic) Travel from one country to another for the purpose of giving birth in the second country, thereby endowing the newborn child with citizenship of the second country.
    • 2005, Matthew J. Gibney and Randall Hansen, Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present Volume 1, ISBN 9781576077962, p. 346 (Google preview):
      In Ireland,a sort of birth tourism emerged in which non-EU nationals sought to give birth there to secure citizenship for their children and exemption from deportation for themselves
    • 2011 April 6, Ray Kwong, "Invasion of the Pregnant Women from China," Forbes (retrieved 17 Feb 2014):
      Ground zero for U.S. birth tourism appears to be San Gabriel Valley, located in the county of Los Angeles.
    • 2012 March 5, Prithi Yelaja, "'Birth tourism' may change citizenship rules," CBC News (Canada) (retrieved 16 Feb 2014):
      The Harper government is considering changes to the citizenship rules to target so-called birth tourism — where a foreign national comes to Canada to give birth so the baby can get Canadian citizenship.
    • 2012 April 20, Hirokazu Yoshikawa and Carola Suarez-Orozco, "Opinion: Deporting Parents Hurts Kids," New York Times (retrieved 16 Feb 2014):
      Birth tourism” is a xenophobic myth.

Related terms

  • birth tourist

See also