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发帖数: 36252 | 1 http://www.npr.org/2010/11/22/131513165/born-in-the-u-s-a-some-chinese-
plan-it-that-way?ft=1&f=1001
Like any responsible pregnant woman, Chen Lei (not her real name) wants
the best for her unborn child. She and her husband live in Shanghai and
both work for a foreign IT company and they have more choices than their
parents' generation could even dream of.
So Chen, 30, is one of an increasing number of mainland Chinese women
who are taking advantage of a loophole in American law to travel to the
United States to give birth.
"Most Chinese women who go to the U.S. to give birth do so for their
child's future, for the education, and for the work possibilities. And
that's true for me, too," says Chen, who is cautious and does not to
want to reveal her identity.
"We just want to give him more choices in life," Chen adds.
Her unborn child — a boy — will have more choices than most Chinese
babies. In a few weeks time, she will board a plane for Los Angeles
where she plans to give birth in an American hospital.
Zhou Junxiang/Imaginechina via AP
A Chinese woman in Shanghai browses the website of a specialty tourism
agency that helps Chinese expectant mothers travel to the United States
to give birth.
An Affordable American Dream
According to the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, anyone born on
U.S. soil has the right to U.S. citizenship.
Originally ratified in 1868 in order to guarantee citizenship rights to
freed black slaves, the amendment has been controversial more recently
in the American public political debate because of poor, illegal
immigrants from Mexico and Central Americans coming to the U.S. and
giving birth. An estimated 340,000 of the 4.3 million babies born in the
United States in 2008 were the children of undocumented immigrants,
according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic
Center.
There is another group of people arriving in the United States to have
children. But this group comes legally, often in first-class airline
seats: mainland China's upper class.
A whole host of middlemen have sprung up in China to facilitate the
booming trade, foremost of whom is Robert Zhou, a Taiwanese businessman.
For roughly $15,000, his company can arrange the hospital in Los
Angeles, the doctor, the house and car rental, and any number of other
extras for wealthy Chinese parents-to-be.
For lots of Chinese people now, $15,000 is very affordable. And it's
still at least four times more expensive for a foreign student to study
at an American university than it is for an American student. With a
U.S. passport, there are no barriers for study or for work.
- Robert Zhou, a Taiwanese middleman who helps wealthy Chinese women go
to the U.S. to give birth
"What I'm trying to do is to help Chinese mothers to realize their
American Dream, at a fair and reasonable price. We're not encouraging
pregnant women to go and get a U.S. visa. We say that if you already
have a U.S. visa, and you're pregnant, you can take the opportunity to
give birth in the U.S. So yes, it is a gray area in U.S. law," Zhou
says.
Anti-immigration activists in the U.S. say the 14th Amendment was never
meant to be applied this way. The Department of Homeland Security and
the State Department have no specific regulations regarding pregnant
foreign visitors like Chen.
Zhou insists his clients obtain U.S. visas themselves before they even
approach him. He says they are paying for everything themselves, and not
being a burden on U.S. taxpayers.
Even though there are many opportunities in China, Zhou says, there's no
doubt access to a free U.S. public school education, and reduced college
costs that come with being an American citizen, are worth the
investment.
"For lots of Chinese people now, $15,000 is very affordable. And it's
still at least four times more expensive for a foreign student to study
at an American university than it is for an American student. With a
U.S. passport, there are no barriers for study or for work," Zhou says.
America's Allure Different For Parents
Zhou has helped as many as 600 mothers give birth in the U.S. in the
last five years. Some are doing so in order to skirt China's strict one-
child law, which doesn't apply if a child is born to Chinese parents
outside China.
When they've gotten a taste of American life, Zhou says some people do
want to emigrate. But the majority of parents, like Chen, don't want to
move to America themselves at all.
"We work in IT, and for people like us, it's better to stay here in
China. We have a great quality of life here, so there's no reason for us
to move," she says.
There is one other advantage of giving birth in the U.S., Chen says.
Last Christmas, she went to a conference in Las Vegas and bought eight
pairs of designer shoes, for about $200 each, half the price they cost
in China. She is going to Vegas again, she says, to do some serious
shopping, before she gives birth in the new year. | e**s
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