An orphan shows up one day with no records of who they are and they cannot be identified amd the orphan doesn’t know who they are

Say they wash ashore or some countries child protective services finds them

Do they get citizenship ?, what happens to them ?

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
    16·
    4 days ago

    It really depends, if they get lucky they might end up being raised in a country that has an easy path to citizenship for people who pass through the education system and learn the local language (for more niche languages this is especially true).

    Anyways, there is a significant number of people who end up stateless and life is really fucking hard. You have no passport and to cross any border you need to manually apply for a visa with absolutely no guarantee of being able to return. Imagine if you went to Cancun for spring break and the US just said “No” when you tried to go home - all your shit is (pretty much) lost to you except what you have on your back and Mexico will eventually kick you out into a country with weaker border control. It absolutely fucking sucks and, while I appreciate that my life has been made significantly easier by being born in the US I think it’s unethical that birth location has such a strong effect on our lives.

    So, usually, those folks just become stateless and get lost in the cracks of bureaucracy. If you’re not a citizen, and especially if you have an illegal status (that would be likely for such an orphan) you won’t have access to healthcare or social services, you’d risk deportation if you’re ever (even wrongfully) arrested. You’re playing the world’s most depressing game of roulette until you get noticed and lose everything.

    It’s for reasons like this that the anti-immigration crowd really fucking pisses me off.

  • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    202·
    4 days ago

    Do they get citizenship ?, what happens to them ?

    If the country has jus soli, yes they are citizens.

    If the country only has jus sanguinis, well depends on the country. In some jus sanguinis countries, they might give citizenship to children born in the country, if they aren’t eligible for any other citizenship. Otherwise, they might stuck in statelessness for a while.

    I can’t speak for other countries, but if this was China (where I was from). And the orphan looked Chinese (or at least one of the ethnic minorities of China), they might be given Chinese Citizenship after going through some bureaucracy, and the government would just assume the kid’s parents are Chinese (and therefore get citizenship via jus sanguinis). If the orphan didn’t look Chinese, they might just do a DNA test, then deport to which ever country the DNA say they’re from. Its a homogenous society, they are not gonna let foreign children there.

    I assume that other countries, if the country never had much immigration to begin with, and the kid does not look like the people of the country, its likely just deportation to whatever country they think the kid is from.

    If its a immigration country, its either jus soli, or if jus sanguinis the orphan would just have to hope the country is accepting enough to just give citizenship.