The purpose of the trip is childbirth: what you need to know about the cancellation of baby tourism in the USA
'10.02.2020'
Source: New Time
The United States is launching a war against the multimillion-dollar maternity tourism industry, whose clients include thousands of Chinese women and residents of post-Soviet countries, the magazine writes. "New Time".
And all in order to stop the flow of migrants to America.
At the end of January, there was a stir in the "Childbirth in the USA" Telegram chat. The mothers-to-be from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan rushed to discuss how to answer questions from American consular officials at visa interviews and what to say to immigration officers at the border.
“Previously, everyone advised against lying: just confirm that there is an agreement with a doctor and a hospital and $ 20-50 thousand for four months of life in the USA,” says a chat participant, 38-year-old Ukrainian Anna Makarenko, who gave birth to both of her children in Miami. “But now it’s recommended not to name the purpose of the trip, but to go for a visa either before pregnancy, or for short periods.”
The reason for the panic of expectant mothers was the U.S. State Department order on new rules for obtaining an American tourist visa that entered into force on January 24. Its goal is to limit the so-called maternity tourism, when foreign women go to give birth overseas for the sake of an American passport for the unborn child.
2018 million babies were born in the United States in 3,8, and although there is no official data on how many of them were born foreigners with a tourist visa, the American think tank Center for Immigration Studies, who advocates tightening immigration policy, estimates it . Its experts say: every year in the United States there are about 30 thousand children-tourists.
There are no statistics about which countries the expectant mothers come from. Nevertheless, the focus of attention of the American press more often than others is on maternity tourists from China, the countries of the former Soviet Union and Nigeria. And the main centers of such tourism in the United States are the states of Florida and California.
In the White House’s decision to block the flow of foreign women in childbirth, experts see political overtones.
“The new visa rules are part of a larger Trump administration project aimed at suppressing all forms of immigration,” says Wayne Cornelius, professor emeritus of political science at the University of California, San Diego, commenting on the Department of State.
In addition to the fight against maternity tourism, the American president intends to abolish the very premise of his appearance - citizenship by law of the land, when every child born on its territory receives a state passport. This norm was introduced into the US Constitution as a 14th amendment after the end of the civil war to ensure citizenship for African Americans, recalls Anna Low, professor of political science at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. In addition to the United States, more than three dozen countries provide citizenship by land law. However, President Trump prefers not to mention this.
“We are the only country in the world where a person comes, gives birth to a child, and he becomes a citizen of the United States ... with all the benefits, '' he said in October 2018. - This is ridiculous. And this must be put to an end. ”
Trump believes that immigrant women use land-based citizenship to gain access to the benefits of US government services through their children, Lowe explains. In addition, the White House sees a threat to national security in the fact that women without any ties with the United States are allowed to give birth to children who will automatically become citizens of this country.
Americans with anti-immigrant sentiments hold the same position, whose support is extremely important for Trump in anticipation of the next presidential election in November 2020, observers emphasize.
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Treasured passport
Makarenko and her husband have repeatedly encountered difficulties in obtaining visas, especially for workers and immigrants, and did not want such trials for their children.
“Someone thinks about a scholarship in college after 20 years or that a child will grow up and call on his parents, but we did not have such a visionary goal,” Makarenko admits. “We just understood that with an American passport he would have more opportunities.”
The document of a US citizen really has weight: in the world index of Henley & Partners passports, it ranks 8th out of 107. For American tourists, short-term visa-free or simplified entry is open to more than 180 countries, while for Ukrainians - only 128, for Russians - at 117, and about 75 foreign countries open their doors wide for Kazakh and Belarusian travelers.
Meanwhile, supporters of stricter immigration policies in the United States accuse foreigners of wanting to use their child’s passport for their own relocation to the country of opportunity. Indeed, today the most popular way of legal immigration to the United States is family reunion: in recent years, two-thirds of the 1 million foreigners who have become a green card holder use it in the past few years, according to an American research center Pew. Americans have christened offsprings of maternity tourists as anchor children (from English anchor babies).
“After the first birth, we always wanted to move to live in the USA,” Makarenko admits. “But we still do not have enough money for legal emigration through obtaining an E2 investor visa [involving investment in the US economy of about $ 100 thousand], but other methods are not suitable.”
Motivation is key
Interrogation with addiction is now waiting not only for former, but also potential maternity tourists. According to the new instruction of the State Department, inspectors can ask women questions about pregnancy and plans to give birth at a visa interview. Moreover, this question will be addressed not to all women, but mainly to those who indicate in the questionnaire the purpose of the trip as medical care.
The US State Department explains: it’s legal to go to the United States to give birth to a child, but not to do so in order to obtain American citizenship. According to the new rules, it is the motivation of foreign women who are sent for childbirth in the United States that will be key to making a decision on issuing a visa. Only those pregnant women who will prove the need to give birth in the United States and confirm their solvency will be able to get it.
By the way, citizens of the post-Soviet countries, and before the introduction of the new rules, did not always succeed in successfully passing a visa interview. In 2019, the percentage of refusals to grant American visas to Ukrainians exceeded 45%. Citizens of Kazakhstan were rejected a little less often - in 43% of cases, and much less often Belarusians and Russians - in 22% and 15% of cases, respectively.
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Brutal selection
The State Department’s order is not the first attempt by the authorities to curb the maternity tourism industry. In January 2019, in the California city of Irwin near Los Angeles, the U.S. police carried out the largest raid against members of this business. Then three entrepreneurs were detained, who offered Chinese couples maternity packages worth up to $ 100 thousand, including housing, nannies and shopping tours in Gucci, Hermes and other luxury goods stores. At the same time, they instructed pregnant women how to deceive immigration officers and get medical services at a reduced cost as the poor.
Despite such precedents, the maternity tourism industry itself exists within the law, Lowe emphasizes. In her opinion, the initiators of new visa restrictions hope that they will affect the desire of foreign women to give birth in the United States, and then this business will simply die from a shortage of demand.
“Maternity tourism has long been the target of anti-immigration groups in the United States,” admits Cornelius.
Since campaigning in 2016, the head of the White House has taken a tough stance on immigration policy, focusing on the US-Mexican border. And later he announced that he intends to reduce immigration based on family ties, focusing on attracting highly qualified specialists. The presidential administration plans to introduce a point system in which the level of English, age, education and family income will be considered as criteria for determining the right to immigration, explains Cornelius.
“Our legal immigration system is undermined by a steady stream of new draconian rules and“ outrageous checks ”for those applying for visas,” he emphasizes. - These measures are not just cruel; they simply won’t work. ”
Jessica Wogan, director of political studies at the anti-immigrant organization Center for Immigration Studies, disagrees. In her opinion, the new visa rules will help prevent the “most egregious cases”.
“They will also serve as a warning to those who are considering a maternity tour: they will be carefully checked and may lose their visas if our system is abused,” Vogan warns.
