Panel discusses different citizenship pathways around the world

The Supreme Court ensured in June that the U.S. will continue extending birthright citizenship to nearly any child born on its soil. The U.S. has one of the broadest definitions of birthright citizenship in the world. That said, it’s a definition embraced by most of the Western Hemisphere, along with a handful of other countries across the globe.

The U.S., Canada and Mexico, Central America and most of the Caribbean and South America all embrace a concept of citizenship called jus soli, a Latin term meaning “right of the soil,” which today has translated to granting birthright citizenship to children born within their borders regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

That means children born to migrant parents, parents who overstay their visas, tourists, foreign students and foreign workers all qualify for citizenship at birth if born in that country.

The U.S. has three narrow exceptions to its near-unconditional birthright citizenship: children born to accredited foreign diplomats, children born to hostile enemy forces during a foreign occupation, and individuals born in American Samoa, where they are U.S. nationals but not citizens.

Most other countries with birthright citizenship also apply the first two exceptions.

The center’s executive director, Mark Krikorian, describes American birthright citizenship as “one of the most extreme versions of birthright citizenship.”

“I'm not sure there's anybody who has a more expansive definition,” Krikorian told The Center Square. “At the very least, it's among the most expansive birthright citizenship policies in the world.”

France: Conditional birthright citizenship

Children who have at least one French parent are typically citizens at birth. Unlike many of its Western European neighbors, France adopted a form of jus soli in 1889 for children born to non-French parents, but narrowed those rules in 1993 by requiring many children born in France to foreign parents to affirmatively request citizenship rather than receive it automatically.

That law was reformed in 1998 to grant automatic citizenship when they turn 18, providing they live in France and have lived there for at least five years since the age of 11.

Whether the parents are in the country legally or illegally, the child’s path to French citizenship is generally the same.

Nicolas Pouvreau-Monti, executive director of the Immigration and Demography Observatory in Paris, noted that there was a new attempt to reform citizenship law in a specific French territory several years ago.

Mayotte is an island group in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa. Mayotte has faced high levels of illegal immigration from nearby Comoros for decades, as well as high levels of poverty, which have strained infrastructure and community relations.

The French Parliament passed legislation requiring at least one parent to have satisfied the legal residence requirements for a child born on Mayotte to qualify for deferred birthright citizenship at age 18. From 2021 to 2024, birth rates declined overall on Mayotte, but by twice as much among foreign mothers as among French citizen mothers.

“This can be tied to some extent to the incentive that was sent by this new law, and this is why, through the specific case of Mayotte, the topic of birthright citizenship is now coming back into the public debate in France,” Pouvreau-Monti said.

Israel and Hungary: Citizenship by descent

Israel and Hungary both primarily follow ‘jus sanguinis’ or ‘right by blood,’ meaning children born to at least one Israeli citizen parent automatically acquire Israeli citizenship at birth. The same is true for children born to at least one Hungarian citizen parent.

Both countries provide preferential pathways to citizenship for members of their historic diasporas, while also allowing foreigners without Jewish or Hungarian ancestry to become citizens through ordinary naturalization if they meet the legal requirements.

Children born in Israel or Hungary to migrant workers or temporary visa holders generally do not have a path to citizenship, although in Israel's case, limited discretionary or humanitarian programs have occasionally provided one. In both countries, children born to foreign nationals generally receive an immigration status derived from or tied to their parents' legal status rather than citizenship by birth.