Canadian govt. considers tightening "citizenship by birth" rules

[CougarKing]

This reminds me of a case from a few years ago of an Indian young man in his 20s who didn't realize he wasn't a Canadian citizen until he applied for a passport. His parents were Indian diplomats but they wrongly assumed that being born here meant that he was Canadian; they obviously didn't know or forgot that diplomatic immunity precluded their son from being given citizenship at birth.

Yahoo News

Harper government considers tightening ‘citizenship by birth’ rules
By Andy Radia | Canada Politics

Canada and the United States are the only two western countries that still automatically grant citizenship to anyone born on their soil. That means if non-citizens or non-residents have a baby in Canada, the baby becomes a citizen and can, as an adult, sponsor his or her parent for immigration.
According to a 'secret' 2013 document presented to then-immigration minister Jason Kenney — put together by various federal departments — the Harper government is being urged to eliminate that birthright.
The 17-page document was obtained by the Toronto Star via an access to information request.

One of the main concerns is that automatically giving citizenship to those born in Canada can lead to fraud.

In 2013, the National Post reported on a Canada Border Services Agency document which suggested that a number of pregnant Nigerian women made their way to Canada in a "pattern... reminiscent of an attempt to exploit birthright laws."
The Post called it "birth tourism."

(...EDITED)


Some worry that the policy is too harsh and could, at some point, deem certain individuals born in Canada stateless.

"This proposal is in line with the government's ideological approach to immigration rather than any evidence-based solutions," immigration attorney Michael Niren told Yahoo Canada News.

"The government wants to block as many roads to Canadian citizenship as it can. Contrary to the trend of globalization, we are taking a more isolationist stance when it comes to immigration and citizenship. This is the opposite approach of what Canada needs, given it's aging demographic.

(...EDITED)

Andrew Griffith, formerly a director general for citizenship and multiculturalism at Citizenship and Immigration Canada, says that the small number of children born to foreign nationals doesn't necessarily justify the cost to annul the law.

"There is no evidence that this is a major problem," Andrew Griffith, formerly a director general for citizenship and multiculturalism at Citizenship and Immigration Canada, told Yahoo in an email exchange.

"Possibly 500 cases out of annual births of some 360,000."

(...EDITED)

 

[Brad Sallows]

I'd be perfectly willing to ignore the trivial problems (costs) if at least one of the big ones were fixed.  Absent the latter, I'll settle for cutting a whole bunch of small ones.

 

[cupper]

It's too late for Ted Cruz. He wouldn't have had to renounce his citizenship, and we wouldn't have had to listen to him besmirch our great country. >

 

[dapaterson]

So, to recap: Ten generations of welfare fraud = citizenship for your eleventh generation.

Parents fleeing to make a better life and working hard in jobs the above ten generations refuse as "beneath them" = no citizenship for children.

 

[PuckChaser]

The Yahoo article doesn't say it, but Canada and the US are basically the only countries who have this kind of law still on the books. Everyone else (UK, NZ, AUS) has changed their laws to remove it. The better question, is why do we need to have it on the books anymore?

 

[CougarKing]

An article from last January. Please also note another article about the US authorities cracking down on a birth tourism ring in Los Angeles, as posted in the Chinese Military Political and Social superthread

Birth tourism on the rise in Vancouver and Richmond?

New statistics show numbers up three-fold since 2009

BY ERIN ELLIS AND JOANNE LEE-YOUNG, VANCOUVER SUN JANUARY 9, 2015

The number of foreign mothers giving birth in Vancouver and Richmond hospitals has quadrupled in the last five years.

In the first nine months of 2014, 232 non-residents delivered babies at Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care hospitals, the majority in Richmond. This accounted for nearly six per cent of all births.

That compares to 62 in 2009, which represented one per cent of the total.

Babies born to non-residents in Canada and the U.S. gain automatic citizenship.

Health officials do not record the nationalities of patients, so they could include so-called maternity tourists, but also those in Canada on work permits, student permits or refugee claimants.

(...SNIPPED)

.

 

[Rocky Mountains]

Just don't give birth in the US so your kids have dual citizenship.  I know people shuddering in fear the US Internal Revenue Service discovers their non-filing of American Income Tax returns and penalizes them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Having all Canadian citizens file income tax returns subject to punitive non-filing penalties and making passport renewal subject to being current with Canadian tax people plus making it illegal for dual citizens to enter Canada on a foreign passport would tidy things up. 

 

[CougarKing]

Having all Canadian citizens file income tax returns subject to punitive non-filing penalties and making passport renewal subject to being current with Canadian tax

Where are you going to find the funding to hire all those new public servants who will chase all those Canadians living overseas who don't pay?

 

[cupper]

Having all Canadian citizens file income tax returns subject to punitive non-filing penalties and making passport renewal subject to being current with Canadian tax people plus making it illegal for dual citizens to enter Canada on a foreign passport would tidy things up.

Where are you going to find the funding to hire all those new public servants who will chase all those Canadians living overseas who don't pay?

Not to mention the fact that Canada and the majority of the rest of the world does not tax foreign income of non resident citizens. Only the US and Eritrea are the only two countries that tax their own citizens who live abroad.

Also, it should be noted that entering the US to give birth in and of itself is not illegal. What is illegal is committing visa fraud by lying about one's pregnancy, and companies or persons who council foreigners in how to avoid detection of said pregnancy while being processed for a tourist visa and upon arrival at US immigration and Customs.

 

[pbi]

So, to recap: Ten generations of welfare fraud = citizenship for your eleventh generation.

Parents fleeing to make a better life and working hard in jobs the above ten generations refuse as "beneath them" = no citizenship for children.

Hear, hear!.  Maybe we're thinking about taking citizenship away from the wrong people.

 

[DBA]

So, to recap: Ten generations of welfare fraud = citizenship for your eleventh generation.

A generation is ~ 20 years (30 in some coutries but lets go with 20) so ten generations would be 200 years. In Canada goverment run and paid for social welfare started in the 1940s (varied by province) which was ~70 years ago or 3-4 generations.