MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st October, 2018) After completing his university studies majoring in biology, Kevin Xu felt lucky when he started work as a consultant in a maternity service center based in Jinan in Eastern China's Shandong province about a year ago.
Xu's clients are mostly Chinese women who plan to travel to the United States to give birth in order to help their children obtain US citizenship, which is a birthright to all children born in the United States under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.
However, after US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he plans to end birthright citizenship for babies of non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants by signing an executive order, the 28-year-old Chinese maternity service consultant started to worry about the future prospects of his career.
"If Trump's policy will be implemented, it will definitely have devastating impact on someone like me who works in this industry [of providing birth services in the United States]," Xu told Sputnik on Wednesday.
Despite the fact that Trump is likely to face a series of legal hurdles in carrying out his plan to end birthright citizenship for children of foreigners like Xu's clients from China, the US president could use other means such as visa restrictions if he does plan to stop babies of foreign citizens from obtaining US citizenship in the future, the Chinese consultant explained.
"Trump is a unique person, unlike other traditional politicians such as former US President [Barack] Obama. Based on his previous behavior of withdrawing from various international agreements, we cannot rule out the possibility of his ability to carry out such a plan. Maybe it's very difficult for him to revise the US Constitution. But he could use other measures to curb the number of foreigners who travel to the United States for birthright citizenship, including introducing visa restrictions or tightening border control. Trump can easily implement such measures," Xu said.
Amid rapid economic growth in China in recent years, a growing number of affluent Chinese couples decided to give birth in the United States as part of their plan to secure a bright future for their children by helping them obtain US citizenship.
US states with a large number of Chinese immigrants such as California have become popular destinations for Chinese couples seeking this kind of maternity services, which have become known as "birth tourism." The influx of Chinese "birth tourists" has led local authorities in cities like Los Angeles to form a special task force to tackle this issue and raided 34 birth hotel operators for improper land use in 2013. A Chinese romantic comedy named "Finding Mr Right," which dramatized a young Chinese mother's trip to Seattle to give birth, has generated $82 million in China.
The appeal of the US education system is the main reason why so many Chinese parents decided to obtain US citizenship for their children, Xu pointed out.
"Nobody knows which country, China or the United States, will enjoy better development 20 years from now. Many Chinese families who decide to give birth in the United States simply want to offer one more option for their children. That's because most of the Chinese couples who decide to do this are the generation in their 30s-40s. Their personal experiences taught them how competitive the Chinese education can be. They just want their children to have better education in the future," he said.
Lucy Chen, who finished a university degree in the United States and operates a similar maternity service in Kunming, Yunnan province, echoed the appeal of the US education to Chinese families.
"Most of our clients are focused on the education for their children in the future. The United States is still one of the most developed countries in the world. The only benefit of a US citizenship is a chance to receive excellent education at a relatively lower price. But most Chinese parents will only send their children to attend high school or university in the United States," Chen told Sputnik.
In face of increasing anti-immigration rhetoric from the Trump administration, Chinese women seeking to give birth in the United States started to experience more difficulties when applying for a US visa, Chen noted.
"The Trump administration has already tightened its control on entry into the United States. This definitely had negative impact on our clients, when it comes to obtaining a US visa or passing through border controls. Before Trump took office, as long as our clients were honest with their intentions to give birth in the United States, they could get US visas without problems. But now, many of them got their visa application rejected, despite having all the required documents," she said.
According to Xu from Jinan, US immigration regulations allow foreigners to travel to the United States to receive medical treatment under a B-2 visa.
"As long as our clients can prove that they have sufficient fund to support their stay in the United States and will not become a burden to US public resources, they should receive their B-2 visas without problems," he said.
Chinese mothers usually travel to the United States two months before their due date and return to China one month after giving birth, Xu added.
Despite Trump's hostile stance on immigration aims to curb the influx of immigrants, the prospects of possible termination of birthright citizenship in the United States have inadvertently driven up "birth tourism" demand from China.
"After the news [of Trump's proposed plan] broke yesterday, many of our clients who still haven't applied for a US visa started to call us, seeking advice on how to obtain a US visa as soon as possible. They expressed intentions to move up their plan to give birth in the United States in the next six months, before any immigration policy changes take place," Xu said.
Chen from Kunming added that about 20 percent of her clients decided to give birth in the United States ahead of their original plan in the past year, over concerns of tightening immigration policy from the Trump administration.
"Some of our clients originally planned to have children in a few years. But as the US immigration policy started to tighten, many of them decided to give birth in the United States ahead of their original plan," she said.
Chen stressed that most of the Chinese couples planning to give birth in the United States are part of the affluent elite class in China, whose presence will only contribute to the US economy.
