RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Safety to walk the streets, income prospects, stability, and free circulation were the reasons why Brazilians Thiago Heluy, 37, and João Veiga, 21, have requested Portuguese citizenship in the last two years. Now they both live in Portugal and are making plans in Europe.
The two are part of the vast number of Brazilians seeking citizenship in the Old Continent. From 2002, when the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) started accounting for continental data, to 2017, the number of citizenships granted increased by more than 800 percent.
While 2,422 Brazilians obtained a second European nationality in 2002, by blood right, length of residence or marriage, in 2017 they were 22,503.
During those 15 years, 170,187 Brazilians obtained citizenship in one of the 33 European countries analyzed, most of which are members of the European Union.
The number of Brazilians who were granted European citizenship increased by 152 percent between 2007 and 2008 alone. Until then, Germany had been the country that most approved applications and that was when Portugal took the lead.
Portugal accounted for 32 percent of all citizenships granted Brazilians between 2002 and 2017, followed by Italy (17.8 percent), Spain (15.63 percent) and Germany (7.83 percent). Together, these countries accounted for approximately 75 percent of all cases.