Online Backlash Spreads Over Granting Citizenship to Children of Undocumented Migrants
Online backlash is growing after the Constitutional Court's ruling on birth registration was distorted into claims that it would grant citizenship to foreign children. However, Danbi News has rated the statement "children born in Korea to undocumented migrants become South Korean citizens upon birth registration" as "false."
On August 27, the Constitutional Court ruled unanimously that the legislature's failure to enact a law on birth registration for foreign children constitutes unconstitutional legislative inaction, in response to a constitutional petition filed by Mr. A, a Vietnamese national and unregistered migrant worker, and his child. The Court's decision does not immediately change the system. What was ruled unconstitutional is not a provision of law, but the National Assembly's legislative inaction in failing to pass a law. The actual system will only come into being if the National Assembly legislates it.
Under Article 2(1)(1) of the Nationality Act, South Korea follows the principle of jus sanguinis, granting citizenship to those born to at least one South Korean parent. Children born to two foreign parents do not acquire South Korean citizenship even if born in Korea. The Family Registration Division of the Court Administration Office stated that whether one acquires South Korean citizenship is not determined by family relations registry records or whether a birth was reported. The Constitutional Court also explained in its ruling that a universal birth registration system does not automatically confer citizenship or residency status on foreign children.
There are only three routes under the Nationality Act by which children of two foreign parents can obtain Korean citizenship: when the parents are unknown or stateless, when the child is adopted by a Korean, or when the child acquires citizenship alongside a naturalizing parent as a minor. None of these is related to whether the birth was registered. Of the seven bills on birth registration for foreign children introduced in the 22nd National Assembly, none included amendments to the Nationality Act.
Residency status is not granted through birth registration either. If the parents are undocumented, the child has no type of residency status available at all, making both residency status and foreigner registration practically impossible regardless of birth registration. This is how children of migrant background born in Korea end up without any legal status.
In its ruling, the Constitutional Court stated, "These rights are 'human rights,' not 'rights of citizens,'" and that the need for birth registration does not vary depending on a child's citizenship or residency status.
