“Passport babies” and the politics of migration

In anti-immigration discussions the term “anchor babies” has been used to accuse women arriving pregnant or with newborns to Europe of only having one plan in mind: to exploit the humanitarian protection systems for children and thereby prolonging their stay in Europe. In an article to Refugees Deeply, researcher and anthropologist, Sine Plambech argues that this discussion misunderstands the journeys and motivations of the women, thereby simultaneously overlooking important explanations for why so few of the women will return to their home country. By studying the stories of pregnancy and birth by the migrant women, it is revealed how difficult it is for them to travel without getting pregnant, with no access to birth control or abortion, while at the same time seeking protection via sex from men.

It is revealed in the stories that the women’s reluctance to return is: “all about going through all the suffering, the pain and life-changing events without getting anything but a return ticket”. According to Sine Plambech, this dimension is largely overlooked because reluctance to return has primarily been linked to the risks of going back to unemployment and insecurity. By listening to the stories of the women, she argues that the relationship between gender, pregnancy and migration politics is revealed and that this could be a stepping-stone in the discussion toward a gender-sensitive understanding of migrant journeys – a discussion that is usually overlooked by the focus on dying migrants at sea, violence in Libya, Sahel strategies and migration deals.