As 'Russkaya Germaniya' writes, over five years the annual number of recipients of European citizenship grew by more than 100,000 – from 771,000 in 2009 to 889,000 by the end of the year before last. Despite the fact that the latest statistics refer to times before the start of the large-scale migration crisis, an interesting trend can be seen – those from North Africa and South America are the luckiest in obtaining European citizenship, and with each passing year they are increasingly lucky.
Thus, in 2014 Moroccans again took the top spot in the list of recipients of European citizenship. In total, 92,000 people swore allegiance to new countries, of which 38 percent became citizens of Spain, 31 percent of Italy, 20 percent of France. In 2009, Moroccans also led the European-wide ranking, but then they received only 60,000 European passports, of which 43 percent were French and 13 percent Belgian.
The number of new citizens from Algeria and Tunisia remains at the previous level – 20,000 and 12,000 respectively. However, whereas before they received the lion’s share of passports in France and somewhat fewer in Belgium, now they are content with Spanish and Italian passports in more equal proportions.
Former citizens of a number of South American countries are also not lacking in success. The number of Ecuadorians and Colombians who received European, mainly Spanish, passports increased by almost a third – to 35,000 and 28,000 respectively. The number of recipients of citizenship from Peru more than doubled – to 20,000.
But the Brazilians, Argentines and Cubans surprised more than others. If earlier they practically did not appear on the list of countries whose citizens actively receive European citizenship, now they have firmly established themselves in the second half of the list. Moreover, more and more Brazilians, of whom 14,000 received European passports, are seeking happiness not only in the former mother country – Portugal, but also in other countries, including Spain and Italy. Argentines and Cubans (8,000 and 7,000) turned out to be less selective and swore allegiance mostly to the Spanish crown.