extranjero transeúnte—“child of transient foreigner”).207 This would amount to an average of 235 entries per year. In October 2014, the Civil Registry reported that a total of 2,843 persons had been registered with notation “HET.”208 Around half of the 2,843 persons who were registered as children of transient foreigners resided in the northern regions of Tarapacá, Arica, and Parinacota, in hard-to-reach rural areas.209 There is no certainty about the percentage of these children who would be eligible for Chilean nationality under the new interpretation, and who may be effectively stateless now. The Department of Foreign and Migration Affairs does not record the number of people who have been naturalized as Chilean who were previously registered as children of transient foreigners.210 Right to Identity and the Process to Secure Identity Documents Like most countries in the region, Chile requires a birth certificate to access healthcare and education that the government provides to all citizens. A birth certificate also serves as the foundational document to obtain other documents of identity, such as national identity cards and passports. A child without a birth certificate may or may not be able to attend school, and many children have to repeat grades while their parents regularize their migratory status.211 They also may be ineligible for benefits linked to school enrollment, such as subsidies for transportation and nutrition, and university scholarships.212 Children without birth certificates can access vaccination and emergency health services, but other state-funded health benefits require a birth certificate. Other services, such as education subsidies and scholarships, require Chilean nationality.213 Every child born in Chile has the right to obtain a birth certificate, and Chile has a robust civil identification system which has resulted in low levels of unregistered births. But some challenges remain, particularly to address the registration of persons born in Chile but born to parents deemed transient foreigners before 2014. Registration occurs through the presentation of a certificate of live birth (comprobante de parto), which the doctor or midwife who attended the birth of the child can provide; failing that, two witnesses over the age of 18 who personally know the mother must testify under oath before a civil officer to the fact and circumstances of the birth.214 The parents or legal guardians requesting the registration of a birth must prove their identity; adults without documents cannot register their child. While lacking identity documents is against the law for any adult resident in Chile, including members of indigenous communities,215 migrants and indigenous groups often lack documentation, and may have lacked it for generations.216 BORN IN THE AMERICAS 57