Shrugging off Brexit shock, more Goans emigrating to Britain

LONDON: There has been a fourfold increase in the number of India-born Portuguese citizens migrating to Britain since 2012, with anxieties over their stay in the country after Brexit not putting off migrants from the former Portuguese colony of Goa.

The Office for National Statistics told Hindustan Times that from 7,000 Portuguese citizens resident in Britain in 2012 who were born in India, the figure has gone up to 28,000 in the year ending June 2017. Most of them have settled in London, Swindon and Leicester.

Portuguese nationality law allows people born before Goa’s liberation on December 19, 1961, and their children, to opt for its citizenship, which makes them citizens of the European Union and thus eligible to migrate, live and work in any of the 28 countries of the EU.

“There is some fear at the back of the mind due to Brexit, but that has not stopped more Goans from giving up Indian citizenship and applying for Portuguese nationality. The situation is bad in Goa, many don’t see a future there,” Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, the Congress MLA from Curtorim currently on a visit to London, told Hindustan Times.

“Most of those leaving Goa are youngsters, they are not leaving out of love of London or Britain, but they just don’t get jobs there. Some are scared about the future. Not only Catholics, many Hindus have opted for Portuguese passports and left.”

The migration of Goans to Britain via Portuguese citizenship has led to demands that the Theresa May government stop the “loophole” that allows the alleged back door entry to the UK, since most do not go to Portugal but migrate to Britain.

As Portuguese citizens, they are part of the estimated 1.5 million EU citizens in Britain currently caught up in Brexit talks over their continued stay in the country. Prime Minister May has linked their fate to that of 3 million British citizens in EU countries after Brexit.