Birth tourism overseas for citizenship rights: Challenges, opportunities, and policy implications

This chapter explores the importance of why people travel abroad for ‘birth tourism and the challenges and opportunities faced by parents who travel abroad to secure citizenship rights and better future for their child in a developed country that grants birthright citizenship. There are numerous complex motivating and the coordinating factors, such as citizenship, ethics, immigration, regulation, health and maternity services, and demand and supply of labour, which drives the birth tourism sector and the host country to provide birthright citizenship to babies born on their soil. Case study examples of three countries USA, Australia and Germany is provided. Therefore, building ethically, regulatory and socially responsible sustainable business of birth tourism industry, is critical for safety and wellbeing of the mother and the underlying reasons for granting birthright citizenship, linked with demand for labour. Further, discussion, policy implications and future research directions are provided.