Ireland. Citizenship tourists

Harder to be Irish

FOUR years ago, a Chinese national, then six months pregnant, travelled from her home in Wales to Northern Ireland to give birth to her second child, Catherine. Man Levette Chen moved to Belfast on legal, not medical, advice. She was facing deportation from Britain and knew that a second child would violate China's strict “one child” policy. Her British lawyers had advised her that a child born in Northern Ireland would automatically acquire Irish - and therefore European Union - citizenship. With her new baby an Irish national, Mrs Chen could then hope to go back and live in Britain.

The British Home Office, however, disagreed. It denied Mrs Chen and her daughter residency rights. On May 18th, the European Court of Justice overturned that decision. In a preliminary opinion, the court's advocate general found that the British government's refusal was a breach of EU law. If the full court later upholds the initial ruling, which it generally does, the Chens will be able to live in Britain - or in most other EU countries - provided they are not a financial burden on the state.

The interim European court's judgment was most opportune for the Irish government, which had just begun a campaign to change the country's generous citizenship laws. On June 11th, Irish voters will decide in a constitutional referendum whether to back the government's proposals. These are meant to close a legal loophole exemplified by the Chen case, which showed how Ireland's citizenship law can be abused to get around immigration controls in the EU's other 24 countries.

Since 1999, anyone born on the island of Ireland, north or south, has been allowed to claim Irish citizenship. That includes those born to non-European parents and who, like Mrs Chen, have no links with the country nor any intention of living there. “Citizenship tourists” is how the justice minister, Michael McDowell, has described those who give birth in Ireland to secure citizenship for their children and then seek residency rights in EU states thanks to having an Irish child. Ireland is the only EU state where citizenship can be acquired from birth, and by birth alone.

For a century and a half, Ireland was a nation of emigrants. More recently, rising prosperity and liberal citizenship laws have enhanced its appeal to immigrants. Still, they remain a tiny proportion of the population. According to the latest census, a mere 2.3% are non-EU nationals.

Yet in 2003, one in four of the 23,000 or so children born in Dublin's three main maternity hospitals had a non-Irish mother; non-EU nationals accounted for 82% of all foreign births. Last year, 58% of the 3,270 female asylum-seekers aged over 16 were pregnant when they applied. Dr Declan Keane, head of the National Maternity Hospital, believes that up to half the non-EU nationals who give birth there are trying to take advantage of Ireland's citizenship laws. The heads of all three Dublin hospitals agree that the rising birth rate among foreigners now warrants a fourth maternity facility in the fair city.

So the government is now proposing that, for children born in Ireland of foreign parents, citizenship at birth will only be granted if one of the parents has been legally resident in Ireland for at least three of the four years before the birth. The public still admits to some confusion over the citizenship issue, with 22% of voters still undecided. But according to a poll for the Irish Times by TNS-MRBI, a majority is likely to support the government's proposal in next week's referendum.

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