Birth tree in Argentina! As “The Guardian” reports, the South American country is currently experiencing real birth tourism. But not because Argentines are now having so many children. They are Russians who come to the country to give birth. Namely, so that their children receive Argentine citizenship.
But why? As Eva Pekurova, owner of an agency that helps Russian women give birth abroad, told the newspaper, Russian citizens do not need a visa to enter Argentina. “So Buenos Aires is very popular at the moment. It is the only goal we are currently working on,” says Pekurova.
In addition, Argentina has a liberal migration policy: everyone born here automatically receives a passport – including Russian babies. According to the owner of the agency, Argentine citizens can enter 171 countries at short notice and without a visa, including the EU, the United Kingdom and Japan. In addition, applying for a long-stay visa is “not very difficult”.
By comparison, before the war, Russians were only allowed to enter about 80 countries without a visa. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the task was no easier. Numerous European countries have completely banned Russian citizens from entering the country or made it practically impossible.
“At least eight pregnant Russian women were waiting for me”
Therefore, Polina Tscherepowitzkaja from Moscow decided to go to “Argentina”. “An Argentinian passport will open many doors for my child,” she told the British newspaper. Shortly after Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine, she found out she was pregnant. It quickly became clear to her that she had to get out of here – before her child was born.
Last December it happened. When she arrived at the maternity ward of a hospital in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, she suddenly heard the native Russian language. “It was crazy, there were at least eight pregnant Russian women waiting for me.”
“We are already fully booked until May 2023”
Cherepovitskaya is far from an isolated case. Hundreds of women traveled to Argentina to give birth last year, according to the Guardian. According to Georgy Polin, head of the consular section of the Russian embassy in Argentina, between 2,000 and 2,500 Russians will move to Argentina by 2022. Among them many pregnant women who wanted to give birth in the countryside. Polin does not believe that the number of immigrants will decrease. More will follow in the future: “In 2023, this number could reach 10,000.”
Kirill Makoveev, who founded the agency Baby.RuArgentina, can attest to the boom in childbirth tourism: his company alone helped more than 100 Russian women last year. And: “We are already fully booked until May 2023.”
Many of them do not plan to leave the country any time soon. So did Tscherepowizkaja and her husband. As the “Guardian” continues to write, they even plan to apply for Argentine citizenship as well. Thanks to their daughter, who is already Argentinian, they could even enjoy a simplified naturalization process. In less than two years, parents of a child born in Argentina will already be able to apply for Argentine citizenship.