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Record number of foreign residents become Spanish citizens
04/06/2021
OVER 126,000 residents in Spain acquired citizenship last year – a rise of 27.5% and the highest figure seen since 2016's record of 151,000.
During the three years after that, numbers of people taking Spanish nationality had steadily declined, at one point reaching an all-time low of just under 66,500.
But 2020 saw a spike in citizenship applications being granted – despite its being a year when offices were closed to the public and life in general was on hold.
The vast majority of those who got their Spanish passports in 2020 were Moroccan, a total of 28,258, followed by 9,010 Colombians and 8,328 Ecuadorians.
In the latter two cases, applicants would only have needed to accredit two years of permanent legal residence in Spain, the minimum required for citizens of the western Mediterranean nation's former colonies and Portugal; the Moroccan applicants, like those from any other country not part of the one-time Spanish Empire or its western neighbour, would have had to have been legally resident for at least 10 years.
Immediate Spanish citizenship is granted in a handful of cases, mostly as historic redress or gratitude: Direct descendants of the Sephardic Jews thrown out of Spain by the Inquisition in the late 15th century are one of these, and a high number of these descendants are based in Israel and Turkey; and the nearest surviving first-degree family members of any of the volunteers who served as part of the International Brigades to help fight fascism during the Spanish Civil War, and who come from over 50 countries, including the UK and even nations under fascist rule themselves at the time where their citizens opposed the régime.
In these cases, Spanish nationality is granted as an 'honorary' measure and can coexist with any other citizenship the holder has, even where dual or multiple nationality is not otherwise permitted by law.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, a significant number of those who seek Spanish citizenship each year are children – they may have been born in Spain to foreign parents, or moved there when they were very small, but have never lived in their families' countries of origin, although for various reasons including visits to relatives or maintaining ties with their roots, their parents had opted for their own nationality to be passed to their offspring.
This, however, may turn out to create hurdles or red tape as the children get older, or they may simply prefer to be officially Spanish as Spain is the only country they have ever lived in.
In fact, an unprecedented total of children took Spanish citizenship in 2020 – according to the National Statistics Institute, 81.4% of those who ended the year as a brand-new Spaniard were aged 10 or under.
Numbers of Brits 'becoming Spanish' not clear
Figures revealing how many, if any, British nationals opted for Spanish citizenship last year have not been released, suggesting the number is not significant, but as the UK was still technically in the European Union all of that year and a full member for the first month, it is possible that many decided to wait and see how Brexit worked out for them as residents abroad.
Many probably have no intention of 'becoming Spanish', but equally, many will be strongly considering doing so, or have already decided to, in order to continue to be a citizen of an EU country and benefit from freedom of movement and the right to be treated at law on a par with a national-born person in any of the 27 member States.
Some of the regions which most attract British nationals – Andalucía, the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands – in fact had the lowest numbers of foreign residents 'becoming Spanish' last year, just 1.5% of the total of expats of any nationality in each; similarly, in the Murcia Region and Catalunya, two other parts of the country popular with Brits, only 3.5% and 3.2% of the foreign communities respectively have acquired citizenship.
Given that the largest non-Spanish communities in Spain are Romanian, followed by Moroccan, and that the Latin American countries combined outnumber UK nationals – estimated to be in region of 400,000 in total – it is very unlikely that Brits figured to any great extent in the 'new Spanish citizen' statistics, but the next two or three years may see this change, especially among the working-age population.
Although only 4.3% of foreigners in the Basque Country became Spanish, the relatively low number of non-Spaniards in this northern coastal region – compared with the biggest cities, the south and east coasts and the islands – means the actual figure involved was relatively high in real terms.
But nearly half of all newly-nationalised foreign-born residents were distributed between the regions of Catalunya and Madrid – 47.7% of the total.
Although the proportion of Catalunya's foreign-born community who sought Spanish citizenship was very low at 3.2%, the outright total of 34,924 was the highest number of all regions in Spain, even exceeding the Greater Madrid region's 25,284.
The regions with the lowest numbers of citizenship applicants were Extremadura, in the west, with 574, and La Rioja, in the far north, with 841 – two areas with a relatively limited number of non-Spanish-born residents.
Most applicants have to renounce their nationality of birth
Joint nationality is not permitted in Spain except for citizens of its former colonies or in 'atonement and appreciation' cases like those mentioned above; everyone else who wants to hold a Spanish passport is required to formally renounce their citizenship of birth and any others they may hold as a condition of the process.
Until recently, for Brits, this would have been a mere formality, since the UK did not previously accept renunciations from its citizens – the newly-acquired Spanish nationality would take precedence, and could be lost if the successful applicant was found to be using a British passport, although from the UK's point of view, there was no barrier to continuing to hold one.
But since leaving the EU, the UK now allows its nationals to renounce their citizenship, at a cost of approximately €460, meaning applying to 'be Spanish' will automatically have to involve doing so.
It is likely that this change will lead a significant number of UK nationals living in Spain to decide not to switch citizenship, unless they consider the benefits of remaining a citizen of an EU country outweigh the loss of their nationality of birth.
Related Topics
OVER 126,000 residents in Spain acquired citizenship last year – a rise of 27.5% and the highest figure seen since 2016's record of 151,000.
During the three years after that, numbers of people taking Spanish nationality had steadily declined, at one point reaching an all-time low of just under 66,500.
But 2020 saw a spike in citizenship applications being granted – despite its being a year when offices were closed to the public and life in general was on hold.
The vast majority of those who got their Spanish passports in 2020 were Moroccan, a total of 28,258, followed by 9,010 Colombians and 8,328 Ecuadorians.
In the latter two cases, applicants would only have needed to accredit two years of permanent legal residence in Spain, the minimum required for citizens of the western Mediterranean nation's former colonies and Portugal; the Moroccan applicants, like those from any other country not part of the one-time Spanish Empire or its western neighbour, would have had to have been legally resident for at least 10 years.
Immediate Spanish citizenship is granted in a handful of cases, mostly as historic redress or gratitude: Direct descendants of the Sephardic Jews thrown out of Spain by the Inquisition in the late 15th century are one of these, and a high number of these descendants are based in Israel and Turkey; and the nearest surviving first-degree family members of any of the volunteers who served as part of the International Brigades to help fight fascism during the Spanish Civil War, and who come from over 50 countries, including the UK and even nations under fascist rule themselves at the time where their citizens opposed the régime.
In these cases, Spanish nationality is granted as an 'honorary' measure and can coexist with any other citizenship the holder has, even where dual or multiple nationality is not otherwise permitted by law.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, a significant number of those who seek Spanish citizenship each year are children – they may have been born in Spain to foreign parents, or moved there when they were very small, but have never lived in their families' countries of origin, although for various reasons including visits to relatives or maintaining ties with their roots, their parents had opted for their own nationality to be passed to their offspring.
This, however, may turn out to create hurdles or red tape as the children get older, or they may simply prefer to be officially Spanish as Spain is the only country they have ever lived in.
In fact, an unprecedented total of children took Spanish citizenship in 2020 – according to the National Statistics Institute, 81.4% of those who ended the year as a brand-new Spaniard were aged 10 or under.
Numbers of Brits 'becoming Spanish' not clear
Figures revealing how many, if any, British nationals opted for Spanish citizenship last year have not been released, suggesting the number is not significant, but as the UK was still technically in the European Union all of that year and a full member for the first month, it is possible that many decided to wait and see how Brexit worked out for them as residents abroad.
Many probably have no intention of 'becoming Spanish', but equally, many will be strongly considering doing so, or have already decided to, in order to continue to be a citizen of an EU country and benefit from freedom of movement and the right to be treated at law on a par with a national-born person in any of the 27 member States.
Some of the regions which most attract British nationals – Andalucía, the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands – in fact had the lowest numbers of foreign residents 'becoming Spanish' last year, just 1.5% of the total of expats of any nationality in each; similarly, in the Murcia Region and Catalunya, two other parts of the country popular with Brits, only 3.5% and 3.2% of the foreign communities respectively have acquired citizenship.
Given that the largest non-Spanish communities in Spain are Romanian, followed by Moroccan, and that the Latin American countries combined outnumber UK nationals – estimated to be in region of 400,000 in total – it is very unlikely that Brits figured to any great extent in the 'new Spanish citizen' statistics, but the next two or three years may see this change, especially among the working-age population.
Although only 4.3% of foreigners in the Basque Country became Spanish, the relatively low number of non-Spaniards in this northern coastal region – compared with the biggest cities, the south and east coasts and the islands – means the actual figure involved was relatively high in real terms.
But nearly half of all newly-nationalised foreign-born residents were distributed between the regions of Catalunya and Madrid – 47.7% of the total.
Although the proportion of Catalunya's foreign-born community who sought Spanish citizenship was very low at 3.2%, the outright total of 34,924 was the highest number of all regions in Spain, even exceeding the Greater Madrid region's 25,284.
The regions with the lowest numbers of citizenship applicants were Extremadura, in the west, with 574, and La Rioja, in the far north, with 841 – two areas with a relatively limited number of non-Spanish-born residents.
Most applicants have to renounce their nationality of birth
Joint nationality is not permitted in Spain except for citizens of its former colonies or in 'atonement and appreciation' cases like those mentioned above; everyone else who wants to hold a Spanish passport is required to formally renounce their citizenship of birth and any others they may hold as a condition of the process.
Until recently, for Brits, this would have been a mere formality, since the UK did not previously accept renunciations from its citizens – the newly-acquired Spanish nationality would take precedence, and could be lost if the successful applicant was found to be using a British passport, although from the UK's point of view, there was no barrier to continuing to hold one.
But since leaving the EU, the UK now allows its nationals to renounce their citizenship, at a cost of approximately €460, meaning applying to 'be Spanish' will automatically have to involve doing so.
It is likely that this change will lead a significant number of UK nationals living in Spain to decide not to switch citizenship, unless they consider the benefits of remaining a citizen of an EU country outweigh the loss of their nationality of birth.
Related Topics
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