Which Countries Have Birthright Citizenship?

The conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday on lifting injunctions on President Donald Trump's executive order to abolish birthright citizenship in the United States. While the case does not ask whether the executive order itself is unconstitutional or not, it deals with the question if birthright citizenship should be paused or continued until this is decided. The judges, who are reportedly divided on the actual issue, seemed at least cautious and skeptical on the prospect of a near-immediate suspension of birthright citizenship in the country. A decision is expected at the end of June or beginning of July.

When signing the executive order on January 20, Donald Trump himself acknowledged that he expected legal challenges. He also called birthright citizenship a "ridiculous" principle and falsely claimed that the United States was "the only country in the world" to practice birthright citizenship.

In fact, many other countries apply birthright citizenship unconditionally (or with rare exceptions, including the United States' neighbors Canada and Mexico. As our map shows, the vast majority of other states in the Americas also apply birthright citizenship, such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Peru and Uruguay. Examples of automatic application of jus soli are rarer outside the Americas: They encompass three African countries (Chad, Tanzania, Lesotho), two small Pacific island states (Fiji and Tuvalu) as well as Pakistan (unless one of the parents is a foreign diplomat or from an "enemy" country).

In many Western European countries as well as other nations including Australia, Colombia, South Africa and Iran children born to foreign parents are eligable for citizenship under certain conditions, most commonly depending on whether their parents were already born in the country but just never aquired citizenship or have lived there without aquiring citizenship for a prolonged period of time.