Birth tourists’ believed to be using Canada’s citizenship laws as back door into the West
Aside from the United States, Canada is the last remaining developed nation that still grants citizenship to everyone born in the country, regardless of the circumstances. As a result, giving birth in Canada has become, to some, a back door into the West.
Foreign-language websites now offer to house pregnant mothers close to hospitals in the “maple syrup kingdom,” while listing the social welfare benefits available in Canada — free education, free health care, child benefits, old age pension. Many of the websites offer toll free calling from China. (….)
Another response, this one from a Quebec hospital, said women from Haiti and francophone North Africa “frequently” arrived in advanced stages of pregnancy. The letter described how a woman from Morocco went into labour before her plane had even landed in Montreal. An ambulance brought her straight to Sainte-Justine Hospital. “Welcome to Quebec! … I think we should revisit this policy and grant Canadian citizenship only to children whose parents reside here.”