Description
This paper problematises citizenship as a remedy to statelessness by considering the role of heteronormative ideals of the family which function through citizenship to shape exclusion from secure status. In order to do so the paper focuses on cross-border surrogacy, through which parent(s) may commission a baby to be born via surrogate in another country. While this practice is prohibited in many countries, its legality in a small number means that each year many babies born through cross-border surrogacy encounter significant challenges in acquiring citizenship status. By examining a set of international case studies of children born via cross-border surrogacy, the paper argues that a ‘motherhood mandate’ (a social bias in favour of gestational motherhood) functions through citizenship to exclude children from formal status and, in some cases, the right to family life. In doing so, the paper brings new insights on the impact of heteronormative ideals of the family on access to secure status, and challenges from an intersectional perspective the idea that citizenship, as it is currently constructed, is necessarily an effective and lasting remedy to exclusion from status.
