Birth tours

There have been some stories recently in the Korean media describing something called "birth tours". Which are not so much tours per se, but a Korean mother travelling to Canada, the US, New Zealand, or wherever, in order to have her child.

The supposed advantages are several; the kid gets citizenship of the country that he or she is born in. That means they can later study there for a lot cheaper than if they only had a Korean passport. If the kid is a boy, it means he can probably get out of military service later on as well.

I guess some Koreans are fed up with their combined public and private education system. Although with upstanding young men like myself leading the charge I can't understand why?

My initial reaction to hearing about these tours was mild annoyance. I'm not sure why, but I didn't really want Koreans running around in Canada having babies. That was until I found out how much they are paying to do it: in some cases over $20,000 Cdn. Now, stop to consider this vis-a-vis the dire shape the Canadian healthcare system is in, and perhaps we may be onto something.

The Canadian government appears, if not to be outright condoning the practice, to be doing very little to discourage it. The welfare state in Canada IS buckling under the strain of too many people wanting a piece of it. We've been living beyond our means. Taxes are about as high as they can go, so it seems the only alternative is to make to do with less. That, or we can do what so many young Canadians have done when faced with the same dilemma on an individual level, and turn to the Koreans.

If Canada plays its cards right maybe we could get birthing Korean mothers underwriting our entire healthcare system. And no reason to stop there, Unemployment Insurance in trouble you say? Take "pick-up phone" to the next level, the unemployed in Canada can teach English to Koreans over the phone. Better than sitting at home all day watching TV, and the Koreans certainly won't know the difference and will pay a lot of money without caring if they do.

The possibilities are endless really. All the Korean babies with Canadian passports are going to have to live somewhere when they come back to attend school. Take my parents for example; I reckon they could fit at least 30 Korean schoolchildren into the basement of their house in Selkirk, Manitoba.

No, not cruel. Koreans are used to living in close quarters. In fact, throw a bunch of used computers down there and it's a bona fide PC bang. Buy a few crates of ramyon at Cosco and food expenses are taken care of. The kids will love it, and their parents will pay into the thousands each month for the privilege.

And to think, instead of being responsible for writing federal government policy in Canada, I'm crammed into a small room at a boarding house in Seoul. Just doesn't make sense does it?