Hey Daryl, how are you? I think there is some kind of misunderstanding on your statements.
There are several ways to acquire Portuguese citizenship. 1. The easiest to understand is the acquisition of Portuguese citizenship by virtue of blood relation - Jus Sanguinis - (through your mother or father who *must* be registered Portuguese citizens): This is how our Goans born after 1961 are eligible - by Jus Sanguinis. As you must know, full Portuguese citizenship rights have been granted to Goans since around 1757, by a Royal Decree signed by King Jos� I. All people from Estado da India Portuguesa (EIP) comprising Goa, Dam�o, Diu, Dadra and Nagar Aveli, were granted Portuguese Citizenship, and equal status under the law, with the Metropolitan Portuguese. This is commonly known as Jus Solis - citizenship by right of birthplace. Portugal is known to be unique in this decision. Neither the French, nor the British, nor the Dutch did that. In 1961, the Estado da India Portuguesa (EIP) was a Portuguese province and recognized officially and internationally (*by UN treaties which even the Indian Union has officially signed and acknowledged*) as integrant part of territorial continental Portugal. The people from EIP obviously enjoyed full Portuguese citizenship rights as Jus Solis (right of birthplace). In the same way Portuguese birth records were recorded in birth registry offices in Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra, Faro, etc., also Portuguese birth records were obviously recorded in Panjim, Margao, Mapuca, etc., etc. Again, EIP was indeed internationally recognized as part integrant of continental Portugal so, records were kept there and there was no reason to send them to Lisbon. In 1975, a new democratic Portugal re-established diplomatic relations with the Indian Union, withdrew all international disputes with India in the UN and acknowledged and recognized the annexation of the EIP by India, backdating it to 19 Dec 1961. It was then necessary to legislate what would be the future of those who were born Portuguese citizens in the EIP (all those born before 19 Dec 1961 in the EIP). As you must know, even though the Indian invasion of EIP was not officially recognized by international law up until 1975, immediately after 1961, India forced everyone to take Indian Citizenship if they wanted to remain living and working in the EIP or register as foreigners and apply for periodical visas, residence permits, police reports and clearance, etc. in their own home land. Some challenged the legitimacy of that law and you are probably aware of the famous case of Fr. Mons. Francisco Monteiro, a man of principles, from Candolim who was arrested and suffered torture because he refused to take Indian citizenship. A considerable amount of our Goans left and were welcomed in Portugal but those who remained in the EIP were typically forced to acquire Indian Citizenship. Portugal was aware that this was happening. The Portuguese government even paid for lawyers including the defense lawyer for Fr. Monteiro. Some cases were even addressed by the Geneva Convention and international courts of law, but India was decided to have the last say in the matter and gradually the issue died. So, this is to say that in 1975, when Portugal issued a change in the Portuguese Nationality Law, the people from EIP were assumed by Portugal to have acquired Indian citizenship on a non-voluntary basis, i.e., it was assumed they were forced by the Indian Union to acquire Indian citizenship in order to remain free of problems in their own homeland. In a genuine attempt to protect the interests of people from the EIP who might wish to remain Portuguese by their Jus Solis status (right of birth place), the Portuguese law allowed them to retain their full citizenship rights ad eternum (*indefinitely*). What this means is that the people from EIP who were born Portuguese citizens (before 19 Dec 1961) never lost their Portuguese citizenship rights!!! The Portuguese nationality law granted them full citizenship rights indefinitely. The only problem was that the birth records were left in the EIP!!! This is why our Goans need to register in Portugal today. Therefore, it is wrong to say those born before 1961 are acquiring Portuguese citizenship. In effect, they are not. Those born before 1961 in the EIP are simply registering in Portugal their officially declaration that they wish to remain Portuguese citizens after the events of 1961. The Portuguese law still recognizes them the right to full citizenship by Jus Solis (birthplace in EIP) but there are no records of their existence in Portugal (the records were left in the EIP). You can, however, say that the children (born anywhere after 1961) of this people can apply for Portuguese citizenship and, if granted, they will have acquired Portuguese citizenship by virtue of blood relation (Jus Sanguinis). As far as I know, no country in the world is known to impose language restrictions on citizenship granted through Jus Sanguinis criteria. Citizenship by virtue of blood relation is known to be a human right. Most civilized (if not all) countries will grant citizenship to their citizen's children without any conditions whatsoever. It would be impossible for Portugal to impose that Goans need to know Portuguese in order to acquire Portuguese citizenship by virtue of blood relation. 2. Acquisition of Portuguese citizenship by virtue of marriage to a Portuguese citizen: Here there is a requirement that the interested spouse *has* to be fluent in Portuguese language and possess knowledge of Portuguese culture. Also, it is a requirement that the spouse needs to prove connection to the Portuguese community. If the couple does not live in Portugal, it is almost impossible to acquire Portuguese citizenship through marriage. 3. Acquisition of Portuguese citizenship by virtue of residency - Naturalisation. Again, there is a requirement that you need to be fluent in Portuguese language and have lived and worked in Portugal for 6 consecutive years (if your country of origin is a PALOP - Official commonwealth group of Portuguese language speaking countries) or 10 years (if your country of origin is not a PALOP country). Portuguese language requirements do exist for those applying for Portuguese citizenship and are strictly enforced, except for the case of blood relations, because it could probably be seen by a violation of human rights. You will probably find interesting to know that 140,000 people from Macau and Hong Kong are registered Portuguese citizens (by virtue of having been born in Macau before 1987 - the year of the Sino-Portuguese joint declaration on the future of Macau) and do not talk a word of Portuguese! Because Portugal allows dual nationality, these people were allowed to remain Portuguese citizens. China does not allow dual nationality, but Macau is an exception and China basically said they are free to use their Portuguese citizenship outside China, which is, according to me, fair enough... I disagree Portuguese language is shrinking. As you must know, independent East Timor has adopted Portuguese as official language of the new country (much to the opposition from Australia and US who have strong interests there). Portuguese is still the 3rd European language most spoken in the world, after English and Spanish, and the 6th or 7th world language most spoken in the world in pair with Russian. Best wishes, Paulo ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
