Description
Two dozens countries in the world differentiate between men and women in their ability to confer citizenship on their children. This paper examines the relationship between unequal citizenship regulations, which restrict women’s ability to pass on citizenship to their children, and migration. What practices of migration exist among families of women who live in countries where they as mothers cannot give citizenship to their children? The paper takes Kuwaiti women who are married to foreigners and stateless men as a case study. Based on interviews with Kuwaiti women and their non-citizen children, the paper sheds light on considerations and practices of migration among members of this group.
The paper addresses three practices. The first is birth migration, or also called birth tourism, where women travel to another country such as the US to give birth where the child can acquire citizenship by birth in the country. The second is considerations of and decisions on migration as the children grow up in the mothers’ country and are facing restrictions on their access to, for example, education and employment. Third is cases of deportation, in which children of female citizens are forced to leave the country, such as if they do not get their residence permits renewed. The paper aims to show the transnational consequences of national policies and laws that restrict or reject citizenship acquisition by matrilineal descent.
