California’s New Handmaid’s Tale
28th November 2022
Since around 2013, wealthy Chinese nationals have shifted away from traditional birth tourism, whereby a pregnant Chinese woman comes to the United States with the intention of having her baby born here. Instead, they have increasingly relied on American surrogates to bear their children.
Hire an American breeder to cook your kid. Bada-boom bada-bing, your Chinese kid is an American citizen. Such a deal.
Producing a child in the United States has many perks. At birth, children gain and maintain full U.S. citizenship, birth certificates and social security numbers, access to education, and a path for their biological parents to receive a green card when the child turns 21. Some agencies promote themselves as a “cheaper alternative than an EB-5 visa,” which costs $500,000 plus scads of time and paperwork.
With birth tourism, a pregnant woman must obtain a visa, travel to the U.S. to give birth, and find an agency to house and help secure the necessary paperwork before returning to China. The process can take months.
Now, however, a Chinese couple or individual can simply work with a U.S. based agency to send their reproductive material (sperm, egg, or embryo) to an IVF lab and implant it in a hired surrogate to produce a viable pregnancy. All without ever leaving China.
And if you hire a black woman, it can probably claim BIPOC Privilege as well. (‘Here’s a picture of my mom and a certificate from the hospital where I was born.’) Is this a great country or what?