Eduardo González
The new Law of Democratic Memory (popularly known as the “Law of Grandchildren”), which came into force last week, will force the reinforcement of Spanish consulates in countries such as Argentina, Cuba or Mexico, where a real avalanche of applications for Spanish nationality is expected. The different sources estimate between 200,000 and 300,000 the number of children and grandchildren of Spaniards who could benefit from this new rule.
The law defines the criteria to be met in order to obtain Spanish nationality “as a reparation measure for those who suffered exile”. Specifically, it establishes that the nationality may be acquired by “those born outside Spain of a father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, who were originally Spanish, and who, as a consequence of having suffered exile for political, ideological or religious reasons or for reasons of sexual orientation and identity, have lost or renounced their Spanish nationality”.
Likewise, “the sons and daughters born abroad of Spanish women who lost their nationality by marrying foreigners before the entry into force of the 1978 Constitution” and “the sons and daughters of legal age of those Spaniards whose nationality of origin was recognized” by virtue of the present law or of the previous Law of Historical Memory of 2007, may also apply for nationality. After the entry into force of the law, the applicants will have two years to carry out the procedure, although there is the possibility of a one-year extension if the Council of Ministers so agrees at the end of the first two years.
With the previous Law of Historical Memory, approved in 2007 by the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, around 250,000 people were naturalized, about half of the petitions presented by descendants of exiles of Franco’s regime to the consulates of France, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba. That plan took a few years to be developed since, although the regulation came into force in 2007, it was not until 2009 that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had the necessary budget to increase by 150 the staff of the consulates in South America most affected, namely those of Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay and Chile.
Regarding the number of people who could benefit from this new law, Foreign Affairs sources consulted by The Diplomat have not been able to advance any estimate because “it is very difficult to know the intention of the people who may request it and how many people may be entitled to it”. However, media close to emigration estimate between 200,000 and 300,000 the number of children and grandchildren of emigrants who could benefit from the new rule in Argentina, Cuba and Mexico. In declarations to the newspaper Público, David Casarejos, president of the Civil Rights and Participation Commission of the General Council of Spanish Citizenship Abroad (CGCEE, under the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration), warned that an “avalanche” of petitions is expected.
According to the Argentine press, those in charge of the consular office in Buenos Aires, the largest and most representative of Spain in the world, are expecting around 60,000 requests. The head of the delegation of the Xunta de Galicia in Buenos Aires, Susana Carbia, recently declared that thousands of grandchildren and great-grandchildren of emigrants began this past summer the procedures before the civil registries to certify their roots in Spain, “in many occasions providing nothing more than a surname and the belief of the origin of a municipality of one of their relatives”.
In Cuba, a Spanish association, the Asociación Autonomía Concertada para Cuba, has reported that the 1933 population census registered about 840,055 Spaniards on the island, although barely a quarter of them were born in Spain. The figures skyrocketed after the Civil War, according to the Association, which estimates that, between children and grandchildren, there are currently more than one million inhabitants of Spanish origin on the island, out of a total of eleven million inhabitants in all.
Last Tuesday, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Ángeles Moreno, admitted before the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Congress that, with the new law, there will be “avalanches” of “applications for Spanish nationality” before the different consulates, with special mention to Argentina, Cuba and Mexico, which will force to “reinforce the staff” of these consular offices.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs foresees a strong flood of applications in the consulates from the first days of the entry into force of the law. As reported by THE OBJECTIVE newspaper, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has sent an internal circular to Spanish embassies and consulates abroad urging them to be ready for the “significant volume” of applications for nationality that will reach them in the coming months.
As for human resources, the minister announces in his circular that “the consulates which are expected to suffer a greater impact (…) will be reinforced”, taking as a starting point the workload data generated by the Law of Historical Memory”. Likewise, Albares also warns of the need to speed up the applications for nationality pending from the previous law of 2007, taking into account that among the beneficiaries of the new law “are, precisely, the sons and daughters of legal age of those Spaniards whose nationality of origin was recognized”.
