'Birth tourism' issue enters electoral, economic realm in US

While some Chinese Americans take offense at Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush's recent comments about "anchor babies", a Chinese "birth tourism" operator isn't concerned, saying his business would not be affected.

Bush's rival candidate Donald Trump used the term "anchor baby" in his campaign to challenge the 14th Amendment, which grants birthright citizenship.

Bush, who has called for immigration reform, used the term while responding to a question about Trump's call to change the law. He later explained, at a press conference in McAllen, Texas, on Aug 24, that his use of the term was "more related to Asian people," who "committed fraud" in order to "take advantage of a noble concept, which is birthright citizenship".

Aides to Bush further explained that he was referring to "birth tourism", which is mostly associated with affluent women from China who are accused of traveling to the United States solely to give birth to a US citizen child.

"It's racial discrimination," said a Chinese mother who gave birth at a Los Angeles-based maternity hotel last year and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. "It hurts our feelings. As a Chinese, I can't accept such remarks," she said, asking to be anonymous.

She said it's not necessarily illegal for foreign national women to give birth in the US as long as they don't misuse their visas and pay their own bills.

"They just want to give their children another choice for their future," she said. "It's different from what the 'anchor baby' implies."

To Wenhong Xie, a Chinese-American blogger living in the Bay Area, Bush's comments demonstrate that the Chinese community in the US was politically powerless.

"It's kind of a tradition for US politicians to bash the Chinese people during their election campaign. This time, Bush narrowed his target to Chinese women in order to win back the Hispanic voters amid the controversy," said Xie, whose account, called "Civil Rights" on WeChat, has tens of thousands of followers in the US and in China.

Asian-American voters accounted for only about 3 percent of the nation's total, and 73 percent of them voted for Barack Obama in 2012.

But more Chinese immigrants in California have leaned Republican since last year's SCA-5, or California Senate Constitutional Amendment No.5, which was introduced by a Democratic senator to ask voters to consider eliminating the state's ban on the use of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in recruitment, admissions, and retention programs at California's public universities and colleges, according to Xie, who is a Republican supporter himself. Some Chinese Americans believe that would affect the rate at which they are admitted into California universities.

"I think Bush rang the alarm for us Chinese Americans that we need to build our own influence, no matter which party you support," he said.

In China, a "birth tourism" operator and a popular blogger, who called himself "Ada's Dad", has been closely watching the "anchor baby" controversy, but he is not as concerned as Chinese Americans.

Two days after Bush made the comments, "Ada's Dad" said in a post on his Weibo account "usbabyada": "Look carefully, he (Bush) refers to those who committed fraud. If you don't lie on your visa and legally enter the US, you have nothing to worry about."

He said his first child was born in the US in 2012 and he then started his Weibo account to share his experience. As more people turned to him for consultation through Weibo, he set up his own maternity hotel in Los Angeles earlier this year. So far he has more than 50,000 Weibo followers and has helped more than 10,000 Chinese women give birth in the US.

"I've always encouraged people to be honest when applying for a visa and entering the US," he told China Daily. He said he also told his clients to pay their own bills and not to think of taking advantage of the benefits.

He said the business was greatly impacted by the federal agents' raids in March this year, but it would be as affected by the Republican presidential candidates' comments. "It's politicians' rhetoric, because it is unlikely the Constitution would be changed," he said.

But Bush's supporters said he had a point. According to a Aug 26 article in the Unz Review, a Chinese birthing center's advertisement promotes that an "anchor baby" will be entitled to "civil rights", "free tuition when attending public schools" and "low-interest student loans", among other benefits.

"Ada's Dad" said that most of the Chinese mothers who intend to have babies in the US were wealthy, so they would not become a financial burden to the US government, and, on the contrary, they would contribute to the local economy as they usually spend at least $50,000 for a three-month stay in the US.

Karthick Ramakrishnan, a professor of public policy and political science at the University of California, Riverside, wrote in the Huffington Post on Aug 28: "Chinese birth tourists account for about 1 percent of all Chinese tourists visiting the United States, who numbered around 2.2 million in 2014.

"Targeting individuals who may be intending to engage in birth tourism is not only likely to invoke concerns about racial profiling and violations of privacy, it also puts at risk a robust and growing trend in Chinese tourism to the United States, which is expected to reach $81 billion in spending by 2021."

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com