Increase in the number of Brazilians with dual Luxembourg citizenship has caught the attention of political parties
CNN’s Salma Freua08/10/2023 at 04:00 | Updated 10/10/2023 at 14:31
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Around 10 thousand kilometers separate Florianópolis, in Santa Catarina, from the city of Luxembourg, capital of the European country of the same name. Despite the distance, the capital of Santa Catarina is currently home to thousands of Brazilians with dual Luxembourgish nationality.
They are citizens of Luxembourg who – in most cases – have never lived in the country. Some have never been to Luxembourg, and do not intend to settle there. Most have also never met a relative who was born in the country.
This population is not limited to Florianópolis. Throughout Brazil, the number of Brazilians with dual Luxembourgish nationality has already surpassed the 27,000 mark – which represents around 4% of the population of Luxembourg, a country with only 665,000 inhabitants.
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In September of this year, Brazil surpassed Belgium to become the second largest country in terms of the number of Luxembourgers abroad. It is behind only France, which has 32,640, and ahead of Germany, which is home to 20,260 Luxembourgers, according to the most recent statistics from the government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
While Brazil is thousands of kilometers away from Luxembourg, these three countries border the Grand Duchy, and even dominated the current Luxembourg territory in past centuries.Play Video
Furthermore, due to Luxembourg’s territorial proximity to Germany, Belgium and France, thousands of people – including Luxembourgers – live in these countries but work in Luxembourg.Map of Luxembourg / CNN Art
What explains the atypical number of Luxembourgers in Brazil is a law that was in force from 2008 to 2018 and made it easier to obtain Luxembourg nationality. Previously, it was only possible to obtain citizenship through a paternal lineage.
The new law allowed the maternal line to also be considered, as long as the Luxembourg ancestor was still alive on January 1, 1900.
The migration of Luxembourgers to Brazil occurred mainly between the 19th and 20th centuries. Like other Europeans, such as Italians and Germans, they arrived in a scenario of reduced slave trade in the world, the end of slavery in Brazil and crises in Europe, which led to this workforce settling in Brazil, especially in Santa Catarina.
Throughout this year, almost two centuries after the beginning of this migratory flow, Luxembourgish politicians traveled to Florianópolis, Curitiba and São Paulo to introduce themselves to a new electorate. At an event in April, six of the seven parties represented in parliament participated in a congress with around 600 Brazilian-Luxembourgish representatives.
By becoming Luxembourg citizens, Brazilians by birth began to be able to decide the political future of Luxembourg and entered the radar of the parties.
Elections
Luxembourg’s legislative elections will take place this Sunday (8). The country is the last grand duchy in the world and a representative democracy in the form of a constitutional monarchy. Grand Duke Henry is the country’s head of state, while the prime minister is the head of government.
In these elections, the most important in the country, all 60 members of the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies are elected by the population. The largest coalition – formed between the parties after the election – usually elects the next prime minister.
One of the most likely candidates for the position is the current Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel, who has been in power since 2013 and could be re-elected for another five years. He is from the liberal Democratic Party (PD) and in 2015 became the first gay leader of the European Union to marry.
The country, however, has never had a woman prime minister. Paulette Lenert of the LSAP, a socialist party, could be the first.
Luc Frieden of the CSV also has a chance of taking power. He is from the Christian party, which currently has the largest number of seats in parliament, but is not part of the government.
Research indicates that the number of seats held by the party should decrease from 21 to 19, but the conservative party should still remain the largest in terms of seats.
Brazilian electorate
Brazilians by birth will now be part of the decision. In the last legislative elections, in 2018, there were less than 3,000 Brazilians with dual Luxembourgish nationality living in Brazil. Today, there are more than 27,000 – an increase of more than 1,000% in 5 years.
The data comes from the Luxembourg government’s National Register of Individuals (RNPP). The RNPP does not publicly disclose what percentage of Luxembourg citizens living abroad are adults. According to research by LuxCitizenship, a company that assists people with Luxembourg citizenship in the Americas, approximately 70% of the 27,000, or almost 19,000, are over 18 years old – the minimum voting age in Luxembourg.
According to government figures, 283,879 Luxembourgers are eligible to vote in these elections. If all dual-nationality adults in Brazil were to vote, this would represent around 6% of the country’s electorate.
However, only 188 asked to participate. Valberto Césio May, 53, is one of them: “I think citizenship becomes complete with my participation in the electoral process,” the architect and urban planner, who is also president of Aclux (Association of Luxembourg Citizens in Brazil), which is based in Florianópolis, told CNN .
For him, voting in the country’s elections makes him feel like a real Luxembourg citizen and that his citizenship is not just a “simple document”. “From the moment I am a citizen, I can exercise my rights and duties. And I think that this is also part of our integration”, he added.
He obtained his citizenship in 2018, from a male line. Although this ancestry was already accepted before, under more restrictive conditions, he said that with the new law, the possibility of becoming Luxembourgish has become more known to people, including him.
The architect has been to Luxembourg three times, but has never lived in the country and has no intention of moving there. One of the reasons is that he is already professionally established in Brazil. “The fact that I am not living there does not mean that I cannot participate in this,” he emphasized.
Clash
But May is part of a small group who will be able to vote in this election.
In addition to there being a deadline for requesting a postal vote, the only category permitted abroad, which prevents those who obtained nationality more recently from participating in the election, a decision by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs established the need for expatriates to present a Luxembourg passport or identity document to vote.Model of postal voting in the Luxembourg Elections / Disclosure
According to research by LuxCitizenship, only about half of Brazilian-Luxembourgish citizens had a Luxembourg passport or identity card.
According to the survey, if only those who showed an intention to participate in the election are considered, only 11% of Luxembourg citizens residing in Brazil intended to vote in the legislative elections and held a Luxembourg passport.
Upon acquiring nationality, the person receives a certificate guaranteeing that they have obtained citizenship. The issuance of an identity document, however, is not automatic.
To obtain a passport, Brazilians with dual nationality must travel to the Embassy in Brasília, in addition to waiting for a bureaucratic process that can take up to 10 months, according to reports.
The government’s decision is contested by Roberta Züge, 50, the first Brazilian candidate for the Luxembourg Parliament, according to the local press.Model postal voting for Luxembourg elections / Release
Brazilian application
For Züge, the measure was imposed as a way to block votes from abroad. “People do not accept the idea that someone from the other side of the ocean can vote in the country, even though it is a right,” he told CNN .
According to Article 64 of the Constitution, to be able to vote in the country, one must be a Luxembourger and at least 18 years old on election day. The Charter prohibits voting if a court restricts this right, in the cases provided for by law, and does not mention the need to present a document.
Some Brazilians formally contested this requirement. The government’s response was that Article 170 of the electoral law, as amended on February 18, 2003, states that “any person domiciled abroad must present a copy of his or her valid identity document or passport.” However, the law does not specify that the document must be Luxembourgish.
It was in the ministry’s determination, this year, that this was added.
Contacted by CNN , the Embassy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in Brasília reinforced the need for a passport to participate in the election.
The candidate also spoke about the delay in obtaining the document in Brazil.
“The treatment given to Luxembourgers abroad is very unequal. People are taking around 10 months to get a passport from the embassy. In Luxembourg, it is possible to get one in less than a week,” he said.
CNN asked the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs about the delay in the process and is awaiting a response .
“Many people had requested the document at the beginning of the year and will not be able to vote, because it did not arrive in time,” the candidate pointed out.
With a Brazilian name and a German surname, Züge was born in Santo André, in the ABC region of São Paulo, to parents from Santa Catarina. She also lived in Recife and Curitiba before moving to Luxembourg in 2020, after obtaining her citizenship in 2018, through her maternal lineage.
Another request made by the candidate is a more transparent and egalitarian process for validating university degrees in the country.
A veterinarian from the University of São Paulo (USP), she says she was granted authorization to work in the field after almost two years of “fighting”. “I have a master’s degree, a doctorate, all diplomas with equivalence, and they didn’t even respond to me”.
She says that this struggle, shared publicly, gave her prominence. “I ended up gaining visibility because of the barrier they created out of pure prejudice.”
“There is a lack of professionals. And at the same time that this shortage exists – there is a lack of doctors, for example – there are all these barriers in relation to the diplomas issued in Brazil,” and he adds: “this is one of the demands that need to be included, not only for us in Brazil.”
Roberta Züge, Brazilian candidate for the Luxembourg Parliament / Amanda Sant’ Anna
She also intends to fight for equal treatment in obtaining citizenship. The law that boosted the recognition of nationality opened a window of only 10 years for applying for Luxembourgish nationality for those who had a maternal lineage.
This request is the first phase of the process, which ended in 2018. Therefore, anyone who did not make this request, and only has ancestry through women in the family, can no longer attempt citizenship.
The same does not happen with those who have paternal lineage. They can still request recognition of nationality.
In addition, female descendants must travel to Luxembourg to sign for citizenship. This is the second phase of the process, whose deadline was extended from 2020 to 2025 due to the pandemic. Male descendants do not need to travel.
“This is a question of justice, especially as I am a woman. I think this is such a blatant unequal treatment that it needs to be corrected,” the candidate argues.
The party she is running for – Piratas – tried to reopen another 10-year window, but only the party’s two deputies voted to approve the measure.
Züge also advocates improvements to the country’s integration programs. In addition to the issue of dual nationality and immigration, she stands out in the party on health issues, due to her background.
The Piratas party, a centrist party founded in 2009, is betting on candidates of Portuguese-speaking origin in this election. Of the 60 candidates, three are of Portuguese origin, two are Cape Verdean, and one is Brazilian – Roberta, who is also the only one born abroad.
Forecasts indicate that in these elections the party could achieve five or six seats.
Luxembourg has three official languages: French, German and Luxembourgish. The latter is used in debates in Parliament. If elected, the Brazilian will need a translator to accompany her in the sessions, as she does not yet speak the language.
Still, Züge has the support of Luxembourgers, as well as Brazilians. There is a significant number of people living in Luxembourg, with around a thousand eligible to vote in these elections, according to an estimate by LuxCitizenship.
But according to the candidate, she is receiving help even from Brazilians who cannot participate in the election.
When he was still unsure whether he should accept the party’s invitation to run for office, he heard from a Brazilian: “This invitation is not yours, it is ours. It represents our community.”