Brexit ‘causing’ more British nationals to become Irish
2019/06/04 Leave a comment
Common trend across most EU countries:
The number of British nationals applying for Irish citizenship has risen significantly since the Brexit referendum almost three years ago.
Irish citizenship ceremonies were first introduced in 2011, and for the first four years applications from Britons averaged about 60 a year.
In 2016, the year of the Brexit vote, there were 568 British applicants.
The number grew to 860 in 2017 and last year more than 1,200 Britons applied to become Irish citizens.
Irish citizenship applications from British nationals
Year Number of applications 2012 55 2013 62 2014 46 2015 73 2016 568 2017 860 2018 1,213 (1 Jan – 30 May) 2019 607 Source: Irish Department of JusticeThe upward trend appears to be continuing this year.
More than 600 applications had been received by the end of May. That figure is expected to rise during the latter half of 2019.
The figures mirror the flood of applications for Irish passports.
In the year before the Brexit vote, there were more than 46,000 applications from Great Britain, but last year that more than doubled to over 98,500.
The current minimum waiting time for a first-time passport application from Great Britain is 72 working days – nearly three and a half months.
Irish passport applications from Great Britain
Year Number of applications 2008 46,105 2009 46,870 2010 43,464 2011 42,337 2012 45,646 2013 42,441 2014 43,449 2015 46,229 2016 63,453 2017 80,752 2018 98,544 (January – March) 2019 37,258 Source: Irish Department of Foreign AffairsApplying for Irish citizenship is a separate and distinct process from applying for an Irish passport, but in order to get an Irish passport, you must first be an Irish citizen.
Irish citizenship can be acquired in a number of ways – through place of birth; Irish descent; marriage, adoption or naturalisation (the length of time an applicant has been resident in Ireland).
Citizenship is automatic for many people, such as those born on the island of Ireland before 2005 or those with a parent who is an Irish-born citizen.
Others must apply to the Department of Justice for citizenship.
While attending the most recent citizenship ceremony in April, Irish Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan remarked on the “significant numbers” of applicants originating from the UK.
Just over 300 British nationals were among the 2,400 new Irish citizens congratulated by the minister.
BBC News NI asked the department if it was linking the recent rise in British applications to the UK’s decision to leave the EU.
A department spokesman agreed the figures showed an increasing pattern since the referendum in June 2016.
“It is reasonable to attribute this steady rise in applications from British nationals over the last three years to concerns around the outcome of the Brexit process,” the spokesman added.
Among Ireland’s new citizens are Welsh ex-pat Laurie Kearon and “Lancashire lass” Stephanie McCorkell.
Both women have a similar story to tell.
Both have lived in the Republic of Ireland for decades, retaining their British passports and identity. But fears over Brexit prompted them to seek Irish citizenship.
British nationals are the second biggest group of non-Irish residents in the Republic of Ireland.
The most recent Irish census, carried out in April 2016, found there were just over 103,000 residents who described themselves as British.
In immigration terms, they were outnumbered only by Polish citizens who totalled more than 122,500 in April 2016.
Top 10 non-Irish nationalities living in Ireland
1 Polish 122,515 2 British 103,113 3 Lithuanian 36,552 4 Romanian 29,186 5 Latvian 19,933 6 Brazilian 13,640 7 Spanish 12,112 8 Italian 11,732 9 French 11,661 10 German 11,531 Source: Irish Census 2016Up until the year after Brexit, British nationals made up just a tiny minority of those seeking a declaration of Irish citizenship.
In 2012 for example, the Dublin government issued more than 25,000 certificates of Irish nationality to people from around the world, but just 85 of those documents (0.3%) were granted to Britons.
In 2013, when more than 24,000 certificates were issued, just 55 (0.2%) were given to British people.
But between 2016 and 2017, the number of successful British applicants rocketed by more than 400%, increasing from 98 certificate recipients to 526.
The number increased again last year, when 687 British people received certificates of nationality from the Irish government.
Certificates of Irish citizenship in numbers
Year No. of certificates issued to British nationals Total certificates issued around the world Certificates issued to British nationals as a % of total 2010 97 6,325 1.5% 2011 70 10,796 0.6% 2012 85 25,110 0.3% 2013 55 24,240 0.2% 2014 51 21,100 0.2% 2015 54 13,561 0.4% 2016 98 10,036 1.0% 2017 526 8,195 6.4% 2018 687 8,226 8.4% Total 1,723 127,589 1.4% Source: Irish Department of JusticeSo far this year, the Irish Department of Justice has issued 312 certificates of Irish nationality to British applicants, and we’re not yet half way through 2019.
It used to be the case that anyone born on the island of Ireland, including Northern Ireland, was automatically entitled to Irish citizenship and therefore EU citizenship.
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement, an international peace treaty, gave those from Northern Ireland the right to identify as Irish or British or both.
But by 2004, the Irish government said the law was being exploited by “citizenship tourism”, claiming that foreign women were travelling to Ireland in late pregnancy in order to get an EU passport for their babies.
It called a referendum, in which Irish voters overwhelmingly backed the tightening of the rules, with 79% voting to end the automatic citizenship right for all babies born in Ireland.
Source: Brexit ‘causing’ more British nationals to become Irish
About Andrew
Multicultural Meanderings 