Birth tourism clearly on the rise in Canada: report

This is an easy one to fix...cut out the automatic citizenship for these people...This makes no sense at all...let them have the baby and then all go home. I am sick and tired of all of these obviously stupid rules being let hang on the books and our useless politicians "paying close attention"
Get off of your #$%^s and do your job...in case you don't know your job is doing what the citizens of the country want done.

This is a sticky wicket. Canada and the USA will not do anything about this except use it as a smoke screen to divert peoples attention away from other more important issues. In every other country the Russians are Russian, the Chinese are Chinese, the English are English, etc.. etc. There are NO original Canadians or Americans just "founding fathers". The only original inhabitants are the Canadian Indians and the Native Americans who are still around and would love to legally question anyone else's right to be a citizen. LOL.

Better than just let them go home and not get citizenship, make them pay the bill up front,they are not Canadians, they have no rights here,pregnant women travelling to Canada should have medical insurance on entry! that way the bill at least is paid! Next

Thank you Thank you Thank you for the article! I wish more of this deception was being uncovered and publicized to make the public aware of what is going on in their own backyard! Canada is definitely known as THE LAND OF THE FREE! I'm tired of seeing paychecks with an exorbitant amount of taxes taken off and driving by my neighborhood geared income housing projects with more immigrants than canadians who drive nicer cars than I do!!! They seem to know all the rules and how to use them to their benefit! Immigrants set up housing for them to stay and give birth here! wow and they wonder why they get such a bad wrap?!?! Sad to say so many of us bitch but do little else but get prejudice attitudes! Hopefully Mr. Alexander will look over many immigration and citizenship policies and make an impact in his position that benefits the canadians who've helped build this country!

Pregnant women travelling to Canada should have to provide proof of return back to their home country prior to their babies due date (ie proof of return flight) along with doctors documents stating due date. If they don't return as scheduled then put out warrant for arrest. They'd be caught when they try to register the birth. Of course, this would never happen, but wishful thinking.

Also, please stop letting in so many Filipinos. This city is being taken over by them. Sure, they work but most of their money just gets sent back to their family in the Philipines, not put back into our economy. Think of all the Canadians they are taking jobs away from. Canadians who would keep their income in the country. I know it sounds racist but I'm also Asian so I don't look at it that way. But I'm born and raised in Canada. I've lived and worked here all my life. I pay taxes and my money stays here!!

I am a teacher at an international school overseas and I have seen this first hand. I was born and RAISED in Canada by Canadian born parents and grandparents. I have had a few students tell me in their "mother tongue" (which was not French or English) that they to are Canadian. However when I ask them where they are from in Canada (they are in Gr 3) they have no idea. They are NOT Canadian! we are giving away our Canadian Social System to "wanna be immigrants" i this has got to stop as they hang on to their new Canadian passport as well as their parents nationalities passport, therefore dual, and will now take advantage of our system at their (OUR) financial leisure. If they want a Canadian passport then live in Canada and earn it, otherwise enjoy your vacation and get your citizenship when you return to your OWN home country!

Minister Chris Alexander whom if memory serves I met in Afghanistan is an astute individual who I am fairly certain will close this loophole. Having Canadian taxypayers foot the medical bill for these mothers is not on and future generations subsidizing these children is also not on either.

the only rule I know is for me to keep paying my taxes and keep covering this kind of thievery on and on .I had to apply for citizenship. Who knows if the native Americans actually came from here anyway and their so called life never changes despite all the chiefs, lawyers, consultants ,study groups spending all our tax dollars with no results to show other than continued poverty for the little guys on the reserves. Why can't we have "smart cards" to prevent people from abusing the generous system and the taxpayer. Vancouver is being colonized by Chinese-don't try and buy in a new condo/apartment-they don't want whites or any other nationality other than Chinese. I just feel we are overrun by people these days, who say "you owe me' from the top of the chain to the bottom.

Keep immigrants the fukc out of Canada! I lived in Vancouver 10 years, which is known as the property crime capital of Canada. For the last decade, Vancouver's suburbs like Surrey had the worst property crime in Canada. Meanwhile, roughly half the population there is Asian. Just a coincidence? Not from my experience.

This is nothing new, it's been going on in this country for many yrs. especially areas close to the Canada/U.S. border. Heard of one case, had her baby 18 yrs. ago, she had travelled from that country just south of the U.S., . when she was close to her due date. Crossed over into Canada, was here two days, went into labour, had her baby at a local hospital, and by the time the baby was six hrs. old, they were on their way back to their "home country". They're doing this to take advantage of the child tax benefit that is now given in this country. Some of these families have up to 8 and 10 children all born here, go back to their home country and collect that child tax benefit and are living on it "south of the U.S./Mexican border". This has been known for many yrs. as stories are told by women who have had their babies in hospitals where this is happening, especially in Southwestern Ontario.

My wife worked labour and delivery at a local hospital and saw this on a regular basis and knew about other hospitals where this occurred very regularly so much so that they could count on at least one or two women coming to Canada arriving at the hospital once the plane landed. Women who are ready to give birth should not be traveling any doctor here will tell you that. Airlines should not allow them on the flight or should be held financially responsible for non paid bills and be fined. One women from Dubai when asked why with their good hospitals she would come here, said her first son was born in the U.S. and this one will be Canadian. Then returned home.

The Immigration Ministry have a huge job to do!!!!!! I am Canadian, and i know so many people that had their citizenship without living one single day in Canada.!!!!!! TERRIBLE!!!! People coming from the middle-east countries are among them also..... I really hope the Minister Alexander will do something.......what a mess in this Immigration Ministry!!!!!!

Being born here should not automatically make you a citizen. Remove this loophole once and for all. It is very unfair.

I live and work in the middle east but was born and raised in Canada, as were my parents and my children. I witness the planned birth tourism practices of Muslim Arabs every day. They laugh at the lax immigration policies of our country and look forward to duping the Canadian taxpayers for their future total family immigration into Canada and subsequently the development of Mosques on every corner of the cities. I'm embarrassed. This is a calculated plan and our laws are letting them run with it!!! We have sold our country's land to the highest bidder, now we sell it's soul. This has got to stop.

THE NUMBERS ARE INSIGNIFICANT

The new Immigration Minister is following in the footsteps of the hated KENNEY

Take minute issues and smear Immigrants

HEY mON!!!!! WHY ARE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF TFWs ROUNDED UP LIKE CATTLE AND BROUGHT TO CANADA TO SLAVE AWAY.......TALK ABOUT THAT BOY!!!!

That is an issue that HURTS CANADIANS

I work for an insurance company that deals with newcomers to Canada. I love telling them that the insurance doesnt cover pregnancy and that they`ll have to pay for everything. Because believe me, almost every call I get which 3 to 4 a day asks if pregnancy is covered.
We need to change the system to stop people coming here just to have babies.

Hey, something for our beloved senate to do, put together a committee and go over all of these loopholes. Save the country some money instead of costing it.
Just my 2 cents.

I realize that my comment will seem extremely naive, however I do not blame those mothers, nor should they be punished or thought lowly of. They decide to travel to Canada. Why? Because our reputation is fantastic and clearly the world views us as a safe place, which, in fact, has always been our goal: to be free, to live free, to bring peace and love to the world. Mission accomplished so far I must say.
Maybe, instead of spending so much time pondering over the fact that our tax money is going toward CHILDREN who need it more than our own citizens capable of working but who are on welfare, we should consider where all these millions of dollars that are supposed to be going to charities for third world countries is actually going. Maybe instead of looking into this further than it has to, we should be focusing on a better goal: Helping each other and the rest of the world out. If anyone has or could ever do it, it's us. That should be the focus. To help women across the world feel safe in their own country.
Fight for what is right, not against a need someone has but cannot obtain it in their own countries.
God Bless guys ++
-Renay, 16

Just to correct Rod, a politician's job is to get re-elected, unfortunately. The Liberals discovered a good way to do that is to cowtow to the immigrant voter. They did it successfully for over 40 years.
Now the Conservatives are doing it, so don't expect this situation to change soon.

How about this to stop this bs - yes the kid does get Can citizenship when born here, but must be put up for adoption to do so. If a Canadian wishes to adopt, the kid stays. If not, then a landed immigrant may adopt. Only if the above are not met do the parents have a right to the child. Unless of course they pay their bills and take the kid back to the homeland. This would stop it all in its tracks and make adoption in this country far more reasonable as well. As an adopted child, his birth parents and extended family, would have no right to return here and scam the system further. And the child would be raised by legal tax-paying citizens of this country, hopefully adopting our cultures and ways in this country. And by making the parents pay up for the medical costs of the birth or else face deportation, I cant see anyone coming here just to give birth.

I am born and raised in Canada and am proud to be Canadian. I am however fed-up that immigrants come to MY country, want everything for nothing and try to impose their views/ will on us. We need to allow immigration from LIKE MINDED nations ONLY. They are successful at using our hard earned resources (social programs costing a lot of $) and politicians do nothing to stop them because of the fear of loosing votes. My recommendation is to start acting like the Prime Minister of Australia - you are welcome here is you abide by OUR Canadian rules - if not, you can leave. The other thing I would adopt a system similar to what UAE uses. UAE Nationals are ONLY the ones who are born and raised there and they are the only ones who have the right to vote - all others are expatriates, have no right to vote and have to re-apply for a work visa every so many years - if the expats do not respect the rules, they are out. We need to take care of our older population - our parents who have build this great country - not give away our resources to people who neither deserve it, not have earned it! All this is tied to allowing women to enter the country just to have they newborn have a free Canadian citizenship - this has to be done away with! We need to reset the pendulum on immigration as our country is slipping away from us, citizens who are born and raised in Canada!

I know first hand rich, well educated immigrants who have done this. Now that their child has moved here and is working here, they lend out their home for future family members to have their babies here and then go home with Canadian citizenship. They will be back for post secondary education. On a cheaper deal them international students.

One more scam perpetrated by dishonest people whose sole intention it is to take advantage of Canada's dysfunctional social safety net and health care system to secure a future spot for themselves on the hard working Canadian taxpayers dime.

This may sound a bit harsh, but if a foreign woman is close to her due date and is planning a trip to Canada for a 'visit', she should be required to wait until after she gives birth in her home country before being allowed to enter Canada at all. I think it's pretty obvious what her intention is if she's coming to Canada in her eighth or ninth month of pregnancy.

Canada needs to strengthen and strongly enforce it's rules on this issue and soon. We simply cannot afford to ignore this scam any longer.

Such an easy fix.....children are the same citizenship as their parents regardless of where they are born. Done.

This is a huge issue that many Canadian tax payers are unaware of. I travelled to Hong Kong recently and sat between two young women who each carried a newborn baby (around 3 months old) and were returning to their homeland. They came to Canada with the sole purpose of delivering a child in our country. There were at least 12 women with babies on that flight in my section alone, and oddly enough they all had the same decorated blanket around their newly born Canadian citizens. If Canada didn't allow for this automatic citizenship, these women wouldn't be coming here for the sole purpose of delivering a baby in the first place, and therefore there wouldn't be any reason to start fighting about who's paying the hospital bill. And 17 years from now, when these babies return to take advantage of our post secondary education system, they get to pay the Canadian rate, rather than the substantially higher foreign student rate. It's a domino effect that can easily be solved.

They need to remove that law PRONTO!

The only way a newborn should be given automatic citizenship is if the mother herself is a citizen of Canada.

Otherwise no citizenship!

So the people that actually go and apply and work hard to actually become citizens are getting the run around, while criminals, terrorists, and who knows who else simply come over here before labour and give birth. REMOVE THAT LAW! I DONT WANT MY TAX DOLLARS PAYING FOR THIS!!

I am so happy that someone raised this issue. I hope that the Minister will do something about this craziness! Are not there enough immigrants in this country already? I work for a city that has to fill "quotas" of immigrants , so it will look good and receive funds from the federal government. The problem : those "immigrants" are not immigrants anymore: they are born here! And they have better chance at having a permanent job than me.

If are are born from not Canadian parents, to get into a country you never lived in, you should apply for a regular immigration permit like everybody else, no shortcut just because you are born here. Being born in a country does not make you a citizen: living, studying, partecipating at the political and social life, working and paying taxes makes you a full time citizen. Probably we should require medical insurance for people using our system without being entitled.
What happened to the fact you cannot fly in the last month of pregnancy?

Bev and David are RIGHT, It's very simple, REMOVE THAT LAW, CHILDREN SHOULD KEEP THE SAME CITIZENSHIP as their parents regardless of where they are born. Done.

Giving birth to a child in Canada seems to be a free ride for whomever. Consider the birth rate amongst 'Native Canadians'...having children provides a comfortable income for them. The extraordinary amount of taxpayers money being allocated to the issue undermines and contradicts the very principles that Canada supposedly stands for.