Birth Tourism: My Canada AM interview
2014/08/26 4 Comments
From yesterday’s show, along with related CTV story.
And interesting, CIC Minister Alexander’s spokesperson responded to CTV’s request for comment with an innovative, for this government, recourse to evidence-based policy language:
‘Maternity tourism’: Report recommends limiting citizenship by birth
About Andrew
Multicultural Meanderings 
Well done, Andrew!
500 cases? That’s clearly not a sufficient number to back up a call to end jus soli citizenship.
But as you point out here (and in your book), anecdotes are really powerful and politicians have to respond when they provoke outrage.
So I have often wondered if stories about birth tourists, refugees and the like serve another purpose and that is to reassure people that their country is still a magnet and their citizenship (they one they hold) is indeed still valuable in today’s world. There is outrage, yes, at such stories but isn’t there also a kind of internal smugness. A kind of “See, here’s proof that what we have is something that other people want.”
Thanks Victoria,
On the attitude question, Canada will be testing this with its new “express entry” system that aims to attract the top 20 percent, not just attract. We shall see in a number of years.
Along with the government rhetoric on the value of Canadian citizenship, there are some assumptions that will be tested.
Andrew
Oh and just for fun here is a post I wrote about birth tourism. Birthright citizenship is not necessarily a welcome status because there are duties and responsibilities to citizenship as well as benefits. http://thefranco-americanflophouse.blogspot.fr/2011/10/involuntary-citizenship-heres-how.html
Good for reminding readers of your posts. Thx