The New Generation Party (PNG) proposes an immigration reform to deny citizenship to those children born from foreigners in the country.
According to the former presidential candidate and leader of that party, lawyer Sergio Mena, the change is necessary due to the high migration facing Costa Rica.
Mena said that in the country there are one and a half million immigrants who collapse public health and education services and that this fact deserves to be considered to change the legal basis of which an ordinance grants citizenship to children of foreign parents.
If a citizen from Northern Ireland has a baby here, I want this baby to be Irish, not Costa Rican (…). We have children who come second because the registration of foreigners is privileged (in public schools and colleges). I am totally open to migration, I think there must be rights for everyone who comes, but we cannot be receiving people unlimitedly, if we do not have economic resources,”
told Mena to CRHoy.com.
In Costa Rica, the legal system recognizes the criterion of ius solis, or land law, which allows the child of foreign parents born here to obtain the nationality automatically. That child, by ius sanguinis, or blood right, will also retain the nationality of their parents.
Mena believes it’s necessary to raise the issue of the convenience of a reform of the Political Constitution to adapt it to the new migratory reality that the country is experiencing.
The issue is the sustainability of the Costa Rican Social Security towards the future when there is a large social portion that is not quoted, and also what we are we going to do for the maintenance of pensions,”
added Mena.
During that transmission Mena also said that the country should watch over the “wealthy migration” of foreigners who come with large capitals to compete with the small and medium-sized companies of Costa Ricans.
Of course, everyone is welcome, but first Costa Ricans on the issue of employment and the generation of economic opportunities,”
said Mena.
Recently, the New Generation Party declared itself as a moderate center-right political force, with an ideology that focuses on the protection of life, defends the traditional values of the Costa Rican and supports the private productive sector.