Birth Tourism

Canada is a lovely country, truly it most certainly is. The landscape is hugely varied and immensely spectacular. It is a wealthy country, with vast natural resources, and vast tracts of arable land. Canada is blessed with more fresh-water lakes than any other country; over 31,000 large lakes, long and powerful rivers, and the world's most valuable forests. There are prairies and there are mountains; not much missing there.

And as a wealthy, technologically advanced country with a relatively small and stable population, its citizens enjoy judicial, equality-based human rights protection, social welfare benefits and political-social stability beyond peer. We are also, and always have been, a land of immigrants, from the first European settlers that arrived and rudely shoved aside the indigenous populations, to the current intake of about a third-of-a-million new immigrants annually.

Canada also extends citizenship by default to those not really meant to receive those benefits, but whose cleverly under-handed plans enable them to slip into the country and back-handedly slap the country's virtuous generosity, while dashing toward ownership of citizenship. The citizenship may not come immediately to the adult, pregnant women who choose to have their babies delivered in Canada, but they are automatic to any child born in the country.

And that automatic citizenship granted to a child born of anyone visiting the country from any destination whatever will in due time produce an opportunity for the child when grown, to legally take steps to sponsor family members to emigrate to Canada from their far-flung lands, to become landed immigrants, and eventually citizens with all the benefits that accrue to that enviable status. First it was young pregnant women from China and the Middle East, and now it is Nigerians.

A modest flood of Nigerian women carrying fraudulent, forged and stolen passports have made their way to Toronto; not quite a 'flood', but enough to have them recognized as a "trend" by Canada Border Services Agency. "The city of Toronto is the main destination for these women because many Nigerians live there", reads the CBSA intelligence bulletin. It wasn't just that they were Nigerian women slipping into the country, but pregnant Nigerian women.

The CBSA bulletin was entitled "Movement of Pregnant Women of Nigerian Origin" outlining a heads-up for awareness of the illicit exploitation of Canada's (and the United States's) birthright laws. Because Europe had already experienced this type of self-availment of entitlements, they no longer automatically extend citizenship at birth to babies of "birth tourists".

"Not only is it taking space from those who should be getting care because they've  contributed to the system all their life, but when they reach the age of majority all of a sudden they have every right that every other Canadian has. Fair is fair. If you contribute and you expect to receive care, that's one thing. But to come in and use the system to your advantage and never give anything in return is not right", said B.C. Medical Association president Dr. Shelley Ross.

With birth tourism, she explained, the delivery rooms, operating rooms and postpartrum wards taken up by baby tourists complicate matters for service-delivery to bona-fide citizens. She deplored the presence of "birth houses" operating openly in the Vancouver area to serve the needs of foreigners arriving at hospitals requiring emergency Cesareans, leaving the country with "Canadian" babies and leaving Canadians to pick up the tab, because they slip away without paying the bills.

"The women were using various fraudulent schemes to travel to Canada" wrote the CBSA in its March 2012 bulletin. "This is reminiscent of the movement which occurred in Ireland in the 1990s, when pregnant women of Nigerian origin travelled to Ireland to give birth to their child and then benefit from the immigration opportunities available in that country, meaning, they obtained Irish citizenship through their child."

Foreign-language websites offer housing for pregnant mothers close to Canadian hospitals. They list the social welfare benefits available in Canada which include free education, free health care, child benefits, old age pension, and invite people to call for more information over a toll free number "The best gift you can give your newborn is a Canadian passport" one of those websites cooed, giving Canada a higher favourable rating than the U.S. with its leaner welfare benefits.

Both Canada and the United States constantly warn their citizens to be wary of fraudulent schemes targeting the unsophisticated and the trusting. Nigerian fraud is wide-spread, encompassing far more areas than merely 'birth tourism'. The country rates among the highest fraud and scam risk nations on the planet with its advance fee fraud, dating scams, dating fraud, inheritance scams, business fraud, investment scans, charity and employment fraud. They cover the spectrum of illicit opportunities to defraud the innocent.

Here is Canada's warning: Travel.gc.ca Although most Canadians are now aware of fraud attempts carried out by companies or individuals in foreign countries, especially in Africa, many Canadians are still victimized and cheated out of merchandise, services and money. Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, Morocco, Algeria, Guinea and Senegal are some of the countries where fraud is a popular and lucrative activity.

And here is what appears on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Internet web site:

Nigerian letter frauds combine the threat of impersonation fraud with a variation of an advance fee scheme in which a letter mailed from Nigeria offers the recipient the “opportunity” to share in a percentage of millions of dollars that the author—a self-proclaimed government official—is trying to transfer illegally out of Nigeria. The recipient is encouraged to send information to the author, such as blank letterhead stationery, bank name and account numbers, and other identifying information using a fax number provided in the letter. Some of these letters have also been received via e-mail through the Internet. The scheme relies on convincing a willing victim, who has demonstrated a “propensity for larceny” by responding to the invitation, to send money to the author of the letter in Nigeria in several installments of increasing amounts for a variety of reasons.
Payment of taxes, bribes to government officials, and legal fees are often described in great detail with the promise that all expenses will be reimbursed as soon as the funds are spirited out of Nigeria. In actuality, the millions of dollars do not exist, and the victim eventually ends up with nothing but loss. Once the victim stops sending money, the perpetrators have been known to use the personal information and checks that they received to impersonate the victim, draining bank accounts and credit card balances. While such an invitation impresses most law-abiding citizens as a laughable hoax, millions of dollars in losses are caused by these schemes annually. Some victims have been lured to Nigeria, where they have been imprisoned against their will along with losing large sums of money. The Nigerian government is not sympathetic to victims of these schemes, since the victim actually conspires to remove funds from Nigeria in a manner that is contrary to Nigerian law. The schemes themselves violate section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code, hence the label “419 fraud.”
Tips for Avoiding Nigerian Letter or “419” Fraud:

• If you receive a letter from Nigeria asking you to send personal or banking information, do not reply in any manner. Send the letter to the U.S. Secret Service, your local FBI office, or the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. You can also register a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission’s Complaint Assistant.
• If you know someone who is corresponding in one of these schemes, encourage that person to contact the FBI or the U.S. Secret Service as soon as possible.
• Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts.
• Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your cooperation.
• Guard your account information carefully.

As for Canada's growing problem with 'birth tourism', the country's new Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has been alerted, and Chris Alexander has stated his intention to pursue the issue to ensure that Canadian citizenship does not continue to be abused and misused. "Birth tourism undermines the integrity of our system and takes advantage of Canadian generosity so that is certainly an issue that I will be considering carefully going forward." 

It cannot happen too soon.