Birthing within borders: pregnant immigrants and the race, gender, & class negotiations of citizenship

• In Event: Sociology of Law Section Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Sociology of Law Section Roundtables: Table 2 — Immigration, Law, and Belonging

Abstract

In 2025 the US and Canada both saw significant social and legal challenges to birthright citizenship. The current backlash towards immigrant reproduction and birthright citizenship builds on a long and intertwined history of exclusion in both countries. This paper is a sociolegal examination of the evolution of birthright citizenship in the US and Canada. Drawing on theories of reproductive citizenship, I interrogate the ways that citizenship in both countries are gendered, racialized, and class based. I conducted a comparative analysis of the foundational legislative documents that guarantee citizenship rights in the US and Canada as well as subsequent court cases and legislation which have further shaped contemporary understanding of birthright citizenship in both countries. In answering the questions: do forms of birthright citizenship in the US and Canada differ? and how have gendered, racialized, and class-based citizenship laws shaped who can benefit from birthright citizenship? I demonstrate how birthright citizenship developed in tandem in the two jurisdictions, shaped by similar legal traditions and legacies of settler colonialism including racial, wealth-based, and gendered exclusions and reproductive control. Despite how the two countries’ have diverged with respect to publicly funded healthcare and models of immigrant incorporation, this shared legacy continues to shape the contemporary backlash to immigration and birthright citizenship.

Author

• Zoë Chaetana Miller-Vedam