Sunday, December 27, 2015

Miami Emerges as Fertile Ground for Brazilian Babies

When Wladimir Lorentz started delivering babies of rich foreigners here, his first clients were Russians escaping autocratic rule, then Argentines facing financial ruin during their country’s economic collapse in the early 2000s.
But in recent years, 46-year-old Dr. Lorentz has seen a growing influx of affluent clients from his native Brazil. With Latin America’s largest economy now mired in a deep recession, unemployment swelling and crime rising, increasing numbers of wealthy Brazilians are giving birth in Miami, drawn by high-quality health care and the guarantee of automatic citizenship for their newborns.
Andrea Melo Aguiar holds a daughter at their Miami 
home. Ms. Melo moved to the U.S. from Brazil last year. 
Photo: RYAN STONE for WSJ
“The common theme…is that there is political and economic issues making them question the viability of their own country,” said Dr. Lorentz, a U.S. citizen who has lived stateside since adolescence and glides easily between English and Portuguese.
Well-to-do Brazilians largely have flown under the radar of the growing controversy over immigrants who critics say intentionally head to the U.S. to give birth to gain a legal toehold for their families. The Constitution grants citizenship to anyone born on American soil, including the offspring of foreign parents. When these children turn 21, they may sponsor their parents to apply for green cards and, eventually, citizenship.
Read the rest of the story HERE at the Wall Street Journal

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