Why ‘birth tourism’ from China persists, despite US crackdown
Many Chinese mothers say the ability of their child to get American citizenship gives them a better chance in life than settling down on the mainland
At 10am on a cold morning in April at the Whittier Medical Centre in California, Sophia was born.
She was a healthy baby girl weighing 3kg with a future in the United States to look forward to, if she chose it.
Her mother, Tracy, came from Shanghai to give her this choice, a chance at arguably the world’s best education, a safe childhood and reliable medical care without long lines.
“I’m here to give my kids better options,” said Tracy, who asked to be referred to by only her first name because she has read stories about officials cracking down on mothers who come to the US to give birth.
Even as middle-class incomes in China enjoy explosive growth and 96 per cent of Chinese people in a recent Pew Research poll say their lives are better than their parents’, an unknown number of “birth tourists” like Tracy cross oceans each year to have their babies in America.
And in the United States’ Chinese enclaves, they find a cottage industry of Chinese midwives, drivers and doctors who accept cash, plus “maternity hotels”, apartments or homes run as hotels for the women during their pregnancies.