The fifth edition of the American Heritage Dictionary (the first new edition in ten years) included a definition for “anchor baby,” which brought immediate criticism from immigrant communities, for not also labeling it as an offensive term.
A child born to a noncitizen mother in a country that grants automatic citizenship to children born on its soil, especially such a child born to parents seeking to secure eventual citizenship for themselves and often other members of their family.
Immigration Impact was among the first critics, with a blog post, referring to the term as having a “poisonous and derogatory nature.”
After the criticism, the wording was changed for the online version of the dictionary. The current wording was added to the online dictionary on Monday. It flags the word as “offensive” and defines “anchor baby” as being
Used as a disparaging term for a child born to a noncitizen mother in a country that grants automatic citizenship to children born on its soil, especially when the child’s birthplace is thought to have been chosen in order to improve the mother’s or other relatives’ chances of securing eventual citizenship.
The “anchor baby” phenomenon isn’t new to 8Asians, and we’ve covered some of the issues in multiple articles including ones on maternity tourism in the Chinese community, and an article on the difficult life facing a Chinese “anchor baby”, once the mother and child return to China.
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