Is being born in South Africa enough to qualify for citizenship?

Just being born in South Africa doesn’t automatically make someone a South African citizen.

Many individuals think that by being born in South Africa, a child is automatically entitled to South African citizenship.

BEING BORN IN A COUNTRY

However, this is not the case. Merely being born in a country does not entitle an individual to nationality of the country concerned.

If this was the case, it would be highly likely that people would be travelling to all sorts of places they like to give birth to children so that the child may claim the nationality of those countries.

CONFUSION REGARDING SOUTH AFRICAN CITIZENSHIP

A number of individuals are not aware of the proper requirements and believe that South African nationality can easily be acquired.

According to IOL, Home Affairs Deputy Minister Njabulo Nzuza has clarified this matter, explaining that children born in South Africa, with neither parent being South African, do not automatically acquire South African citizenship.

DEPENDENT ON NATIONALITY OF PARENTS

For a child to obtain citizenship by birth in South Africa, one of its parents must be a South African citizen at the time of the child’s birth.

The parents may have legitimately claimed nationality through being naturalised or by becoming a permanent resident of South Africa.

BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP

However, there are several countries where all children born in that respective country are conferred citizenship at birth.

Birthright citizenship or “jus soli” is a policy whereby a child is granted citizenship by the country they are born in.

According to VividMaps, a number of countries, including Argentina, Canada and the United States offer birthright citizenship.

The United States has recognized birthright citizenship, or “jus soli” since the passing of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.

ANCHOR BABIES

Critics of birthright citizenship say it encourages immigrants to travel a country and have so-called “anchor babies.”

This is true for many countries. Women might fly to places like the United States or Canada to give birth to children.

This is so that their children are entitled to the nationality of another country, regardless of the parent’s nationality.

SOUTH AFRICAN CITIZENSHIP

Nationals from other other countries might come to South Africa to have babies here.

This is because medical services in South Africa are often better than those in many other states.

They might desire acquiring South African citizenship for babies since South Africa has a relatively powerful African passport.

However, this is not possible under current legal frameworks.