Birth tourism

In 2006, KNBC-TV in Los Angeles did a report regarding "birth tourism" by women wishing their children to be born in the United States. [1] According to the news story, these women rent rooms in boarding houses for their stay, which negatively affected the Hancock Park neighborhood. Under the rules of many countries, such children have dual citizenship. According to Edward Chang, professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Riverside, the practice is popular among the elite of South Korea, since sons of these women can avoid compulsory military service. Being US citizens, these children do not have to meet the stricter international student rules to enter the University of California system. In addition, when they turn 21, they become eligible to petition for a grant of permanent residency for their parents. Some prospective mothers misrepresent their intentions of coming to the United States, a violation of U.S. immigration law. However, it is not illegal for a woman to come to the U.S. to give birth.