Pregnant with her fourth child, Russian lawyer Alena Tcherepanova, 41, traded the Siberian winter for the summer in São Paulo and immediately noticed the difference in her body. “As soon as I arrived, the swelling went down, my skin, my hair, my nails, everything improved. I no longer had to wear a lot of clothes like in the cold of Russia, something very unpleasant for a pregnant woman”, she says.
The child, baptized with the Greek name of Anfisa, was born on February 26, 2021 by the SUS (Unified Health System), in a birthing center in the Jardim Ângela neighborhood, on the outskirts of the city. Without mastering English or speaking Portuguese, Alena communicated with the team through a translation app on her cell phone.
Despite the language barrier, he says the experience at Casa Angela exceeded his expectations. “I was surrounded by affection, which is what a woman needs at that moment. It was very different from what happens in Russia, where obstetric violence is unfortunately very common”, she says. “This warm atmosphere helped me relax. This is the kind of environment that children are supposed to be born into.”
In the first contacts with the birthing center, the team doubted that she would come all this way to have the child in Brazil. “I wrote twice asking for information, and they answered me, but they didn’t seem to believe I was going to go there to give birth.” And it was just to give birth: a month and a half later, the lawyer returned to Russia, with the baby already with a Brazilian birth certificate and passport.
Alena is not an isolated case: the demand for so-called childbirth tourism in Brazil has grown so much among Russian, Ukrainian and other countries of the former Soviet Union that specific agencies have been created to serve them. The price of the service varies according to the assistance chosen, but the average is US$ 5,000 (R$ 23,000). There are also forums on social networks for exchanging tips between those who want to come and those who have already had the experience.
The objective is to obtain Brazilian citizenship for their children. “The Brazilian passport opens many more doors than the Russian one”, explains sociologist Svetlana Ruseishvili, a professor at UFSCar (University of São Carlos), who published a scientific article on the subject. “Childbirth tourism has become a strategy to raise migratory capital, that is, to increase opportunities for international travel.”
The Brazilian passport allows visa-free access to more than 150 countries, which places it in 20th place in the Henley Passport Index, one of the best-known rankings on the subject, 29 positions ahead of Russia.
citizenship by birth
Few countries grant the right to citizenship only at birth – the so-called “jus soli”. The system is common in Latin America, and Mexico, Argentina and Brazil are the three most sought after by Russian families for this purpose, according to Ruseishvili. The ease of regularization for parents of children born in Brazil is another attraction. In the US, for example, there is “jus soli”, but there are many barriers for family members to become naturalized. The costs of travel and medical services are also much higher, including the lack of a universal public health system, as is the case with the SUS.
Under Brazilian law, the baby’s parents immediately receive a residence permit in the country and, two years later, can apply for naturalization, as long as they live in Brazil and take a Portuguese test.
São Paulo, Rio, Paraty and Curitiba are some cities sought after by these families, but the most popular is Florianópolis, as it is considered safe and has a good public delivery system.
At the Hospital of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, which began to receive Russian patients in 2014, 19 deliveries of Russian women have been performed to date. “All of them presented a temporary address and justification that they wanted to obtain Brazilian citizenship,” the institution said.
The increase in the number of Russian women having babies in the capital of Santa Catarina generated an alert in the Public Ministry, which suspected that the births could be linked to a child trafficking network. In 2019, the state court ordered the Federal Police to investigate the cases, and one of the babies was even sent to a shelter for a few days.
In a statement, the PF reported that it had carried out a preliminary investigation and found no migratory irregularities or signs of a crime of trafficking in persons. There was no investigation.
War led to increased demand
Since the war in Ukraine began and, along with it, the isolation imposed on Russia by Western countries, the demand for childbirth tourism in Brazil has grown, says Olga Aliokhina Alves, partner-owner of Brazilmama, an agency that serves Russian-speaking families since 2017.
“In the pandemic, it decreased, even because the borders were closed. With the war, everyone is fleeing Russia and Ukraine, wanting a better life, a peaceful pregnancy, the right to live in another country legally”, she says, who attends an average of two to five families per month.
The conflict has also led some families to decide to stay in Brazil after the child is born, instead of returning to Russia, as initially planned.
Packages can only include assistance in obtaining documents or also services such as accompanying medical appointments and childbirth, rental of property and travel recommendations. The VIP option also entitles you to a photo session, a trip to Rio de Janeiro, an intensive Portuguese course and a private driver, as well as a crib, stroller and changing table rental.
Businesswomen, doctors, lawyers and other middle- and upper-class women are the predominant profile among those who travel abroad to have their babies, says Ruseishvili, from UFSCar. A part of them also seeks to fulfill the desire for a natural and humanized birth. “In Russia it is almost impossible to have this experience.”
They usually arrive one to three months before the due date, alone or with husbands and other children. “Some fall in love with the country and stay forever, while others stay only a few weeks, until they get a residence permit,” says Alena.
Despite having returned to her country after giving birth, the lawyer now wants to migrate permanently to Brazil with her husband and four children. “We’ve been looking for a place to move for a long time, with a milder climate”, she says. “Although I only visited São Paulo, Praia Grande and Salvador, I thought we could feel comfortable in any of these places.”
