Bringing the border to baby: birth registration as bordering practice for migrant women’s children

ABSTRACT

Babies born ‘out of place’ to migrant mothers pose a challenge to states seeking to restrict access to migration and citizenship. In places as diverse as Texas, Tel Aviv, and Santo Domingo, policymakers have been modifying administrative requirements to limit access to birth certificates for babies born to migrant women with temporary or irregular status as a measure aimed at discouraging their permanent settlement. This raises concerns regarding the gendered ways in which women can be controlled via their reproductive lives when childbirth is made a juncture of migration enforcement, and children’s right to an identity and a nationality violated as a result. Rights advocates are pushing back against this practice using existing human rights frameworks. This article provides an overview of what birth registration as a bordering practice looks like so that scholars, policymakers, and practitioners around the world can recognise and resist it. It focuses on the case of the Dominican Republic’s denial of birth certificates for people of Haitian descent, and an action-research project aiming to facilitate access to the Dominican civil registry for children of mixed couples (migrant mother and Dominican father). It concludes by highlighting the implications for the babies born ‘in between’ – who are at risk of statelessness and other rights violations – and pointing to international frameworks for upholding children’s right to a nationality.

Les bébés nés de femmes migrantes « ailleurs que dans leur pays d’origine » représentent un défi pour les États qui cherchent à restreindre l’accès à la migration et à la citoyenneté. Dans des lieux aussi divers que le Texas, Tel Aviv et Saint-Domingue, les décideurs ont commencé à modifier les exigences administratives afin de limiter l’accès aux actes de naissance pour les bébés nés de femmes migrantes dotées d’un statut temporaire ou irrégulier, comme mesure visant à décourager leur installation permanente. Cela soulève des préoccupations concernant les moyens sexistes de contrôler les femmes par le biais de leur vie reproductive lorsque l’accouchement est transformé en stade de l’application des lois sur la migration, et lorsque le droit de l’enfant à une identité et à une nationalité est violé en conséquence. Les défenseurs des droits se servent des cadres existants de protection des droits de l’homme pour contester cette pratique. Cet article fournit une vue d’ensemble de la forme que prend l’enregistrement des naissances en tant que pratique de contrôle des frontières afin que les théoriciens, les décideurs et les praticiens du monde entier puissent la reconnaître et lui opposer une résistance. Il se concentre sur le cas du refus par la République dominicaine de délivrer des actes de naissance pour les personnes d’origine haïtienne, et sur un projet de recherche-action visant à faciliter l’accès au registre civil dominicain pour les enfants de couples mixtes (mère migrante et père dominicain). Il conclut en mettant en relief les implications pour les bébés nés « entre deux endroits » – qui risquent l’apatridie et d’autres violations de leurs droits – et en mentionnant des cadres internationaux permettant de faire valoir le droit de l’enfant à une nationalité.

Los bebés de madres migrantes nacidos “fuera de lugar” plantean un desafío a aquellos Estados que intentan restringir los flujos migratorios y el acceso a los procesos de naturalización. En lugares tan diversos como Tejas, Tel Aviv y Santo Domingo, los formuladores de políticas modificaron los requisitos administrativos para restringir el acceso a los registros de nacimiento de infantes nacidos de mujeres cuya situación migratoria es provisional o irregular; dicha medida pretende evitar que éstas intenten asentarse de manera permanente. Este tipo de disposiciones constituye un motivo de preocupación en términos del sesgo de género que implica, en tanto las mujeres migrantes pueden ser controladas a partir de sus procesos reproductivos si el parto se convierte en un factor crítico para la aplicación de las leyes migratorias; en consecuencia, se violan los derechos del niño a una identidad y una nacionalidad. Apoyados en los marcos de derechos humanos existentes, los defensores de los derechos han rechazado estas disposiciones. El presente artículo proporciona una visión general detallando en qué consisten los registros de nacimiento como práctica de control fronterizo, con el fin de que académicos, formuladores de políticas y profesionales de todo el mundo puedan identificarla y hacer propuestas para evitarla. El artículo se centra en el caso de la República Dominicana y su negativa a conceder certificados de nacimiento a personas de ascendencia haitiana; además, da cuenta de un proyecto de acción-investigación cuyo objetivo es facilitar el acceso al registro civil dominicano a niños nacidos de parejas mixtas (madre migrante y padre dominicano). El artículo concluye haciendo referencia a los marcos internacionales establecidos para defender el derecho del niño a una nacionalidad; asimismo, en el caso de niños nacidos sin certeza de su ciudadanía destaca las implicaciones que ello conlleva, pues corren el riesgo de carecer de una nacionalidad y de sufrir violaciones a sus otros derechos.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• migration
• birth registration
• human rights
• Dominican Republic
• statelessness

Notes on the contributor

Allison J. Petrozziello is a feminist migration researcher and human rights advocate, currently pursuing a PhD in Global Governance at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. She is a research associate of the Caribbean Migrants Observatory (OBMICA) in the Dominican Republic and the International Migration Research Centre at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. Postal address: Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb St. W, Office 245, Waterloo, ON N2L 6C2, Canada. Email: [email protected]

Notes

1 Anyone wishing to share a practice of concern or propose a field visit may contact the author at [email protected].

2 This was accomplished via a 2013 amendment to Texas Administrative Code 181.28, which changed the list of documents considered admissible on birth certificate applications, ostensibly as a means of strengthening the birth record information system ‘to protect Texas residents from identity theft and reduce fraud related to vital records’ (Benson 2015).

3 The Guardian reported that: ‘Israel says including the father’s name on an official document without proof of paternity has significant legal ramifications. “Determining paternity is liable to determine the status of the father and child in civil law on matters such as inheritance, child support, custody, conversion, names, citizenship, residency, registration in the population registry and more,” according to the court papers’ (Sherwood 2013).

4 For example, the 2004 Migration Law attempted to interpret expansively one of the conditionality clauses on jus soli citizenship such that persons considered ‘in transit’ (previously legally defined as ten days) would now come to encompass all immigrants with irregular migration status regardless of their time in the country.

5 This last move provoked a national and international outcry. According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2015, 22), this ruling created a situation of statelessness of a magnitude never before seen in the Americas. In response to the outcry, the Dominican state hurriedly passed a Naturalisation Law in an attempt to turn the nationality-stripped Dominicans of Haitian descent into irregular migrants with a path to naturalisation. However, implementation has been riddled with problems. The Naturalisation Law has not proven to be an effective solution to restore the right to nationality for those denied or deprived it, and statelessness persists among the population of Haitian descent.

6 UNHCR launched its ibelong campaign in 2014 with the goal of ‘bring[ing] an end to statelessness within ten years by resolving existing situations and preventing the emergence of new cases of statelessness’. The campaign’s action plan includes removing gender discrimination from nationality laws as a means of preventing statelessness. It collaborates closely with the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, also launched in 2014 and co-ordinated by the Women’s Refugee Commission, to mobilise action through national and global advocacy, research, and knowledge sharing.

7 See the CEDAW Committee’s General Recommendation No. 32 on the gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality, and statelessness of women (UN CEDAW 2014).

8 OBMICA wishes to acknowledge the support of the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives in 2014–15 and 2015–16 (project numbers CFLI-2014-SDMGO-03 and CFLI-2015-SDMGO-0002).

9 OBMICA wishes to acknowledge the support of the European Union through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (project number EIDHR/2015/371-23).

10 The videos are: ‘Libertad: la historias de las y los hijos de parejas mixtas’ (https://youtu.be/sc0rRuO_Deg, subtitled in English) and ‘Exclusión del Registro Civil: Hijos de Parejas Mixtas’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSQv_JH_qgc).

11 Twelve per cent of children under five (116,880) in the Dominican Republic do not have a birth certificate (UNICEF 2016). The country continues to make efforts to catch up to other Latin American countries, which have managed to achieve universal birth declaration.