For many non-resident mothers, giving birth in Canada is not entirely about taking advantage of the system—it reflects a more complex migration and family planning story. Yet, political debates persistently frame them as “birth tourists.”
Dr. Amanda Cheong and PhD candidate Hilal Kina conducted interviews with non-resident mothers who had previously given birth in Canada. Their research shows that rather than a uniform group of strategic citizenship-seekers, many non-resident mothers give birth while working, during studies, as asylum claimants, or because of instability and violence in their home countries.
“Legislative efforts to restrict birthright citizenship risk excluding diverse families with varied reasons for migrating and having children in Canada. Despite its flaws, territorial birthright remains essential and should be protected.”
Key Findings
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Non-resident mothers give birth in Canada for various reasons. Often lumped together as birth tourists, these births can be accidental, strategic, or simply incidental to women’s personal and professional goals in Canada.
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Women’s reproductive journeys are also shaped by structural factors. Many non-resident mothers give birth in Canada due to factors in their homeland, like fleeing violence or political instability or delays in Canada’s immigration system.
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Current estimates on birth tourism rates are misleading. Existing methods use hospital billing codes, which lump together a range of non-residents including international students and asylum seekers—many of whom do not fit the definition of a birth tourist.
Recommendations
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Governments should move beyond hospital billing codes when assessing birth tourism. They should invest in understanding the broader structural conditions that shape non-resident families’ reproduction decisions.
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Canada’s birthright citizenship should be protected. Birthright citizenship is essential to ensuring that all residents of Canada are afforded rights and to fostering the long-term inclusion of families who contribute to society.
Implications for Current Events
In 2024, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) data registered 5,430 “other country resident self-pay” births in Canadian hospitals—more than double the pandemic-era average of 2,339, and approximately 2% of all hospital births. Political attention to non-resident births prompted an amendment to Bill C-3 to eliminate automatic birthright citizenship unless one parent is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. However, using only the hospital code to measure possible cases of birth tourism ignores many temporary immigration status holders do not fit the definition of a “birth tourist”.
Dr. Amanda Cheong and her colleagues’ research responds directly to this tension. Drawing on interviews with non-resident mothers in Canada, their study shows that motivations and circumstances behind non-resident mothers’ births are far more varied than the label implies. While some mothers deliberately planned their births in Canada for citizenship purposes, many others were seeking asylum or working or studying in Canada at the time they gave birth. As such, they argue that hospital-code estimates overstate the phenomenon and overlook the diverse experiences of non-resident mothers in Canada.
About the Authors
Amanda Cheong is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on how legal status and documents shape people’s lives, particularly in Southeast Asia and in North America. Her research has been published in International Migration Review, Social Problems, and Ethnic and Racial Studies. She is writing a book about the experiences of stateless individuals in Malaysia. She earned her BA at the University of British Columbia and her PhD at Princeton University.
Hilal Kina is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Hilal’s doctoral research centers on dispossession, systemic marginalization and everyday resistance, particularly within the context of Armenians in Turkey. Hilal’s MA work focused on the role of collective apologies in post-conflict settings. Hilal has been actively involved in initiatives supporting social justice, decolonization and Indigenous self-determination in various contexts.
Capri Kong is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. She holds a BA degree and a Master’s degree from the University of British Columbia. Her current research studies the characteristics and dynamics of friendship networks among first- and second-generation immigrants and their influence on immigrants’ sense of belonging and integration into Canadian society.
Original Research
Cheong, Amanda R., Megan Gaucher, Jing Li, Stephanie Nedoshytko, Jamie Chai Yun Liew, Angela M. Contreras-Chavez, Hilal Kina, Nikita McDavid, and David Brush. 2025. “Unpacking ‘Birth Tourism’: Incidental Citizenship and the Diverse Migration and Reproduction Trajectories of Nonresident Mothers in Canada.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 51 (17): 4299-4319.
Copyright: UBC Centre for Migration Studies
Availability: Web & Print
Publication date: April 30, 2026
Pages: 3
This publication is part of the CMS Migration Insights Series. The research briefs synthesize peer-reviewed, published academic research by CMS affiliates.