Meanings
- derogatoryuncountableThe travel from one country to another for the purpose of giving birth in the second country, thereby endowing the newborn child with citizenship of the second country.
“Birth tourism” is a xenophobic myth.
2012 April 20, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Carola Suarez-Orozco, “Opinion: Deporting Parents Hurts Kids”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 03 Mar 2022, retrieved 16 Feb 20143 more examples
In Ireland,a sort of birth tourism emerged in which non-EU nationals sought to give birth there to secure citizenship for their children and exemption from deportation for themselves
2005, Matthew J. Gibney, Randall Hansen, Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present, Volume 1, →ISBN, page 346Ground zero for U.S. birth tourism appears to be San Gabriel Valley, located in the county of Los Angeles.
2011 April 6, Ray Kwong, “Invasion of the Pregnant Women from China”, in Forbes, archived from the original on 27 Nov 2024, retrieved 17 Feb 2014The Harper government is considering changes to the citizenship rules to target so-called birth tourism — where a foreign national comes to Canada to give birth so the baby can get Canadian citizenship.
2012 March 5, Prithi Yelaja, “'Birth tourism' may change citizenship rules”, in CBC, Canada, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2022, retrieved 16 Feb 2014
Cite this entry
birth tourism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/birth%20tourism
“birth tourism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/birth%20tourism. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “birth tourism,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/birth%20tourism.
Source: birth tourism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.