Portugal has 512,000 pending nationality applications, and only 15% of this figure concerns Portuguese nationals born abroad, states the Minister to the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro.
In a parliamentary debate on nationality law, the minister explained that, “last year, applications for naturalisation of foreigners based on residence increased five times compared to 2015 and tripled compared to 2021.”
“Access to and ownership of Portuguese citizenship cannot be facilitated or traded. Nationality is not a commodity for people to obtain a passport and then move to another European country,” said the minister.
In recent years, he considered, “the required connection to the national community has been weakened and this has had consequences; the number of nationality applications has skyrocketed, but not those of Portuguese parents.”
“In 2015, 194,000 applications for nationality were received, almost all of them from children of Portuguese. But already in 2022, 362 thousand requests were received, of which only 160 thousand are from children of Portuguese parents.”
“Over the last seven years, the number of resident foreigners has quadrupled, increasing by one million. Naturally, the potential numbers will increase if we don’t do something about it,” said the Minister to the Presidency. “And all this would happen without integration and effective connection being ensured. The objective of the nationality law is to correct the recent mistakes of the left. Being a citizen is a title belonging to the Portuguese people. It is a privilege, not a right.”
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
