Russians massively rushed to give birth in Argentina and caused a scandal

The scandal with heavily pregnant Russian women, which made Buenos Aires cry, may lead to the fact that the shop for obtaining a “quick” Argentinean passport will close. And maternity tourism, caused by the soft legislation of the country, will stop from Russia. Checks are already underway, the migration authorities are talking about the withdrawal of residence permits from Russians through the courts. Some experts console cunning compatriots who have already managed to get a residence permit “through childbirth” with the fact that the Argentine authorities will make some noise and calm down. Others do not share this optimism.

The news about Russian women in an interesting position at 31-33 weeks of pregnancy, who were detained at the entrance to Argentina, caused a resonance. The head of the migration service of Argentina, Florencia Carignano, said that the tourists who arrived could not answer a single question about the sights of Argentina. And to the direct question of the border guard about the purpose of the visit, one of the women said: “I came to give birth.”

All together gives the migration service a reason to assign them the status of falso turista, “false tourist,” Carignano said. True, despite this, after a while all the women were allowed into the country.

The unusual tourist activity of Russian women in Argentina is gaining popularity. Local hospitals record an “exponential growth” in the number of women in labor from Russia, border services allow 30 expectant mothers a week. Moreover, the principle “Give me water to drink, otherwise there is nowhere to give birth” is not at all accompanied by “We have come to you to settle forever.” On the contrary, an early departure follows after the registration of all certificates and passports – this is maternity tourism.

According to the migration service of Argentina, which is confirmed by the consular department of Russia, over a year, 10.5 thousand pregnant women arrived in the country. And 7,000 of them left for their homeland shortly after giving birth. The Migration Department was even going to challenge through the court the status of a permanent resident of those Russians who do not live in Argentina and do not appear. It is known that since February 9, 13 Russians have been denied a residence permit.

“We went to Argentina to give birth in the same way as before, until 2020, they gave birth in Miami,” Ekaterina, a Muscovite, told MK. – It seems that even the same people are doing this, organizing trips. It turned out even better here: citizenship is given not only to the child immediately, but also parents are issued passports within two years. And before that, residence permit.

Argentine citizenship is a visa-free Schengen, Japan, Australia – a total of 170 countries, as well as the possibility of obtaining a ten-year visa to the United States. Argentina has a high level of medicine, good doctors…

At the same time, in 2021, childbirth cost us only 5 thousand dollars, cheaper than in Moscow. And in the last year, everyone went here, because here you can give birth for free. According to local laws, any woman has this right, public hospitals are very decent. Therefore, a lot of people come from neighboring countries – from Bolivia, Venezuela …

And now ours have begun to abuse free childbirth. My husband and I lived in Argentina for another two months after giving birth, received documents for the child and left. And some give birth for free, then leave a week after the birth. They hire a lawyer to complete the paperwork and go home.

Now Ekaterina is upset that “some kind of movement around passports has begun.” He is afraid that the child’s citizenship may be withdrawn or not given to her and her husband. The family is not going to move to Argentina. It became known that the country’s migration service is going to check 350 Russian women who gave birth to children in Argentina to find out why they left so quickly and do not live in the country.

– If a child was born on the territory of Argentina, it is impossible to take away his citizenship, he is an Argentinean, – says Latinist, resident of Argentina Vladimir Geraskin. – But the parental residence permit can be withdrawn if desired. Although parents have every right to apply for a residence permit, and then for citizenship.

I wouldn’t rush to forecasts at all. Firstly, now the country has a loyal government headed by President Alberto Fernandez, he is unlikely to want to complicate relations with Russia. Secondly, the well-known principle of “manyana”. I mean, “I’ll do it tomorrow”, but maybe in a month, in a year or never. There is nothing that changes quickly and drastically. In addition, you can arrive ahead of time so as not to tease the geese. A Russian citizen can stay in Argentina for 90 days without a visa, just by foreign travel.

“All this hype has not been started in vain,” suggests an employee of the Russian Foreign Ministry, who did not want to give his name. – Detentions at the airport are a formality. Our 10,000 pregnant women are a drop in the bucket compared to the same Venezuela, where 100,000 a year go and leave the same way. Argentina is one of the most popular countries for so-called maternity tourism.

I believe that such a reaction was caused by an incident in Slovenia, where at the end of January two people were detained on suspicion of espionage, one of them turned out to be a Russian with an Argentinean passport. After that, the Argentine side started talking about “responsibility for the passport.”

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28971 dated February 14, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Harvest Argentina