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''Anchor baby'' is a pejorative term for a child born in the U.S. to a foreign national mother who is not lawfully admitted for permanent residence. The term is generally used as a derogatory reference to the supposed role of the child, who automatically qualifies as an American citizen under ''jus soli'' and the rights guaranteed in the 14th Amendment and can thus act as a sponsor for other family members. The term is also often used in the context of the debate over illegal immigration to the United States to refer to children of illegal immigrants, but may be used for the child of any immigrant.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=anchor baby )〕 A similar term, "passport baby", has been used in Canada for children born through so-called "maternity" or "birth tourism". There is a popular misconception that the child's U.S. citizenship status legally helps the child's parents and siblings to quickly reclassify their visa status (or lack thereof) and to place them on a fast pathway to acquire lawful permanent residence and eventually United States citizenship. Current U.S. federal law prevents anyone under the age of 21 from being able to petition for their non-citizen parent to be lawfully admitted into the United States for permanent residence. At best, the child's family would need to wait for 21 years before being able to use their child's US citizenship to modify their immigration status, and is thus, unhelpful for immigration purposes. ==History and usage== A related term, "anchor child", referring in this case to "very young immigrants who will later sponsor immigration for family members who are still abroad", was used in reference to Vietnamese boat people from about 1987.〔 "Anchor baby" appeared in print in 1996, but remained relatively obscure until 2006, when it found new prominence amid the increased focus on the immigration debate in the United States.〔〔〔 Lexicographer Grant Barrett nominated the term for the American Dialect Society's 2006 Word of the Year.〔 It is generally considered pejorative. In 2011 the ''American Heritage Dictionary'' added an entry for the term in the dictionary's new edition, which did not indicate that the term was disparaging. Following a critical blog piece by Mary Giovagnoli, the director of the Immigration Policy Center, a pro-immigration research group in Washington, the dictionary updated its online definition to indicate that the term is "offensive", similar to its entries on ethnic slurs.〔 , the definition reads: ''n. Offensive'' 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 decision to revise the definition led to some criticism from illegal immigration opponents. Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization that advocates tighter restrictions on immigration, argues that defining the term as offensive is inaccurate and is done for purposes of political rhetoric; according to Krikorian, "'(anchor baby ) is a child born to an illegal immigrant,'" and the revision of the definition to state that the term is offensive was done to make a political statement.〔 According to ''Fox News'': Bob Dane, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based organization that seeks to end illegal immigration, said the revised definition panders to a small but vocal group of critics who are "manipulating the political, cultural and now linguistic landscape" of the United States. "Publishing word definitions to fit politically correct molds surrenders the language to drive an agenda," Dane told FoxNews.com. "This dictionary becomes a textbook for the open borders lobby."〔 According to the ''Double-Tongued Dictionary'', written by American lexicographer Grant Barrett, the term "anchor baby" means "a child born of an immigrant in the United States, said to be a device by which a family can find legal foothold in the US, since those children are automatically allowed to choose United States citizenship." In response to a reader comment, Barrett claimed that the term is used to refer to a child of ''any'' immigrant, not just children of illegal immigrants.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Double Tongued Dictionary )〕 In 2012, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, in a meeting designed to promote the 2010 Utah Compact declaration as a model for a federal government approach to immigration, said that "The use of the word 'anchor baby' when we're talking about a child of God is offensive." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Anchor baby」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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