The incidence of suspected “birth tourism” in Canada is about 2,500 a year, says a Department of Immigration report. Researchers used new data in estimating the number of births by foreign mothers on short term visits to Canada, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“The number of estimated deliveries by short term visitors, i.e. ‘residual’ deliveries, shows an increasing trend in recent years from around 800 annually in 2010 to around 2,500 in 2017,” said the report An Examination Of In-Hospital Deliveries. Figures were drawn by cross-referencing immigration records with hospital births by foreign mothers who paid out of pocket for medical care..Of some 265,000 hospital deliveries annually “around 92 to 93%” are by mothers who are Canadian citizens or landed immigrants, wrote researchers. “Around one to 2%, approximately 6,000 annually in recent years, were by temporary residents in Canada,” said Hospital Deliveries..However the 6,000 included cases where fathers were Canadian or foreign mothers had a legitimate reason to be in Canada, said the report. “More specifically around 4,000 births were by temporary foreign workers, more than 1,000 by international students and around 1,000 by refugee claimants and temporary resident permit holders annually,” it said..“The issue of ‘birth tourism’ has drawn considerable public attention in recent years,” said Hospital Deliveries. “There have been frequent media reports on the issue and there were also petitions that called on the government to implement measures to reduce or eliminate the practice. However, which births in Canada should be attributed to ‘birth tourism’ has not been officially defined.”.Under the 1947 Citizenship Act babies born here are entitled to full benefits as Canadians. The immigration department earlier commissioned in-house polling on whether to amend the Act to limit citizenship based on the immigration status of parents..“Some say that Canadian citizenship should only be granted on an automatic basis to those born in Canada if their parents are Canadian citizens or permanent residents,” said a 2015 Tracking Study questionnaire by the department. “Others say that Canadian citizenship should continue to be granted on an automatic basis to anyone born in Canada even if their parents are only here temporarily or illegally. Which is closer to your view?”.Fifty-seven percent supported revoking citizenship from children born to temporary residents or illegal migrants. Only 39% supported the law as it stood. The findings were based on interviews with 3,028 Canadians nationwide..“The problem is that if these people born here don’t get citizenship here they won’t be able to get citizenship anywhere,” immigration lawyer Peter Edelmann of Vancouver, then-executive with the immigration law section of the Canadian Bar Association, said in an earlier interview. “You would wind up with stateless individuals.”
