Austria's foreigners could abuse their passports

The Austrian Green Party is demanding that, as of now, children of foreign nationals be given Austrian citizenship at birth. The daily Die Presse questions the logic: "It's so easy to mix everything into the domestic debate. And many will now come up with the idea that passports for all those born here has something to do with the need for immigration, which some politicians currently promote. But these are not birds of a feather. Only Napoleon Bonaparte used to insist on the principle of ius soli, in order to win over new soldiers, taxpayers and workers for his country, weakened by its low birth rate and its many wars. Today, just about 11,000 foreigners are born in Austria every year. That's not going to change much. And it would also make no sense to deliberately raise this number through an overly liberal regulation. It would only provoke further abuse by those mothers and fathers who are trying to finagle a right to stay."

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