Birthright Citizenship Across Nations: Jus Soli Jus Sanguinis and the American Debate

33 questions on birthright citizenship across nations, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Are there exceptions even in countries with unconditional birthright citizenship?
• Can a country take away birthright citizenship retroactively?
• Can someone be a citizen and still be unable to prove it?
• Do children of foreign diplomats born in the United States become U.S. citizens?
• Does a child born to foreign parents visiting on a tourist visa get U.S. citizenship?
• Does any country use only jus soli or only jus sanguinis?
• Does birthright citizenship apply to children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents?
• Does Plyler v. Doe support birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants?
• Does the United States still have birthright citizenship?
• Do the Slaughter-House Cases support restricting birthright citizenship?
• How have countries narrowed birthright citizenship without abolishing it?
• How is birthright citizenship different from naturalization?
• If I was born abroad to a U.S.-citizen parent, am I a citizen?
• Is citizenship acquired abroad protected by the Constitution the same way birth on U.S. soil is?
• Is dual citizenship a result of birthright rules?
• What are the arguments for keeping a broad birthright citizenship rule?
• What are the arguments for restricting birthright citizenship?
• What did Elk v. Wilkins hold about the Citizenship Clause?
• What did the Supreme Court decide in Trump v. CASA?
• What did United States v. Wong Kim Ark decide?
• What does “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” mean?
• What does the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause say?
• What is Executive Order 14160?
• What is statelessness, and how does international law address it?
• What is the difference between jus soli and jus sanguinis?
• Where did birthright citizenship by birth on the soil come from?
• Which countries have ended or restricted birthright citizenship, and how?
• Which countries still grant citizenship to everyone born on their soil?
• Why do dates matter so much in citizenship law?
• Why do most European and Asian countries use descent rather than birthplace?
• Why is American birthright citizenship in the Constitution rather than in a statute?
• Why is birthright citizenship considered so valuable compared to other routes?
• Why would changing the U.S. birthright rule be harder than it was in other countries?