Australian Influencer Shannen Michaela, took a holiday to Costa Rica to promote citizenship by birth tourism. Photo / @shannenmichaela
Australian Influencer Shannen Michaela, took a holiday to Costa Rica to promote citizenship by birth tourism. Photo / @shannenmichaela
An Australian travel influencer has divided opinion with her scheme to provide her family with dual nationality: giving birth abroad. Now, she is offering mentorship to others seeking citizenship through maternity.
Shannen Michaela, 24, who now lives in Costa Rica with her young family has been accused of promoting “birthtourism” and exploiting a “citizenship hack” to carry on her South American travels.
The video titled “Have a baby and get an extra passport” the social media creator outlines how she has collected passports from the UK, Australia and now Costa Rica.
Promoting a guide to how mothers-to-be can open new opportunities for their family and offspring by planning births abroad, she describes birthright citizenship as “the most accessible way to obtain an extra passport.”
In many countries, including Costa Rica, parents or caregivers of children granted citizenship by birth can also apply for a passport or right to remain.
Shannen Michaela, took a holiday to Costa Rica to seek a new passport for her family. Photo / @shannenmichaela
Having travelled to Costa Rica from Australia, explicitly with the intent to give birth, the influencer said their son was “born safely at our home in the jungle on 29/5/23″.
The concept of “Jus Soli” or automatic citizenship by birth is observed by a list of 31 countries. While many countries observe restricted forms of birthright citizenship, requiring one or more parent to hold citizenship or permanent residency, others are more liberal with their granting of passports.
Many countries in the Americas including Canada, Barbados and the United States will grant citizenship to anyone born on their national soil.
The clip promoting a guide to planning travel, birth care and legal representation in the Jus Soli nations has been viewed almost 500,000 times.
“It is an investment in your family, your child’s future and generations to come,” says Michaela.
The video promotes birth tourism as a way to preserve freedom of movement and provide greater flexibility for tax obligations.
Not everyone is as pleased with the social media creator’s instructions on birth tourism.
Detractors described the guide as “privileged” and misguided.
Among the 400 comments were accusations that the information was “anchor baby instructions for rich people” - referring to the euphemistic practice that is used as a path to citizenship by many economic migrants to the US.
Australian Influencer Shannen Michaela, took a holiday to Costa Rica to promote citizenship by birth tourism. Photo / @shannenmichaela
Others said the family were trying to “gentrify” the practice and that it carries a social stigma in the Americas.
“If you’re rich it’s called Jus Soli and it’s looked at positively, if you’re poor it’s called an anchor baby and it’s looked down upon,” read one comment.
Michaela defended her actions and encouraged others to exploit this citizenship hack, saying “travelling is not only a rich people thing.”
She pointed out that there were many Russians in South America seeking second citizenship following the imposition of travel sanctions in 2022.
Once a method to tackle the problem of statelessness in countries with high migration rates, many countries that once practised Jus Solior or “law of the soil” have since tightened their laws.
New Zealand granted automatic citizenship by birthright up until 2006. Prior to this the Citizenship Act common law ruled that anyone born in the country could be granted citizenship and the right to remain, regardless of parents’ immigration or visa status.
The US has many complicated caveats to their Immigration and Nationality Act, including that children of foreign diplomats (or an invading army) cannot be granted citizenship by Jus Soli. This does not stop many visitors and even mothers giving birth on diverted flights from applying for American passports for their offspring.
A child born on a plane over American territory or within its airspace is automatically granted US citizenship.
Birth tourism is a controversial practice and full of many practical and legal complexities.
The Caribbean nation refused to grant a birth certificate to the child of Iuliia and Clive Gurzhii, who claimed that there were no witnesses for the delivery in the couple’s boat on April 23.
