Soil and Blood

Trump Plans to End This Law…

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end the right to citizenship for babies born in the US to foreign parents. (He says he’ll do it by executive order, but it’ll actually take an amendment to the Constitution, which means it’s unlikely.)

That got my editor thinking. He’s Irish, and pointed out that his country ended birthright citizenship 20 years ago due to the same concerns about “anchor babies” that motivate Trump. What countries, he asked, guaranteed birthright citizenship, and which don’t?

This may not matter for most of us, since our reproductive days are over. But in the consultations I offer, I’m increasingly meeting people who hope to help their own children follow them in acquiring citizenship abroad. For them, knowing whether their grandchildren will become citizens automatically can be an important factor in their decision making.

So, here’s what you need to know…

Countries With Birthright Citizenship

Any baby born on the soil of a country with “birthright citizenship” automatically gets citizenship, just like in the US. This is known as jus soli—right of soil. It includes all the countries in the Western Hemisphere, except for Colombia, Suriname, the Dominican Republic, and several of the Caribbean nations. Joining them are Pakistan, Tanzania, and Lesotho.

The US itself is responsible for the predominance of birthright citizenship in the Western Hemisphere.

After the Civil War, the 14th amendment to the constitution said, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” This was to ensure that freed slaves were treated as citizens. In those days, the newly independent countries of the Western Hemisphere tended to look to the US for guidance, so they adopted the same approach.

Countries Where “It Depends”

Outside the Western Hemisphere, most countries base citizenship on jus sanguinis, which means “right of blood.” The concept of nationality is inextricably bound with ancestry, so the idea that a foreign baby can automatically become part of the nation doesn’t fit.

Nevertheless, some countries allow some children born to foreign parents on their soil to become citizens:

Australia: Automatically on their 10th birthday, provided they have lived in Australia since birth.

France: If they live in France for a specified period or meet other residency criteria.

Germany: At least one parent has lived in Germany legally for at least eight years and holds permanent residency.

United Kingdom: At least one parent has settled status (permanent residency) in the UK.

Ireland: A least one parent must be an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen or have lived in Ireland legally for three of the four years preceding the child’s birth.

South Africa: At least one parent is a permanent resident at the time of the child’s birth.

Countries Without Birthright Citizenship

In Japan, China, India, South Korea, Sweden, and Italy, the law explicitly states that the children of foreigners born on their soil do not become citizens.

So, these countries are dominated by the big Asian nations, which are strongly attached to the idea of citizenship as an artifact of ancestry. But also included are Sweden and Italy, two countries where recent concerns about immigration have prompted legislation to limit access to citizenship.

---