Thousands of Cuban residents in Spain received this country’s citizenship and the powerful Spanish passport (number two in the world) in 2022, last year. Cubans are among the “top 10” foreigners who have naturalized in this European Union (EU) country.
According to a report by Spanish newspaper La Razón, a total of 181,581 foreigners living in Spain were granted Spanish citizenship by the Ministry of Justice in 2022. This value is the highest since 2014 and represents an increase of 26.1% compared to 2021.
Most foreigners who naturalize as Spanish are those from Morocco, who make up almost 30% of all naturalized people. Morocco has a large emigration to Spain, especially to border cities such as Ceuta and Melilla, which are part of the European country. They also move to the geographically close Canary Islands.
Moroccans have to wait ten years to be nationalized based on their residency, whereas Latinos only have to wait two years after legal residency to apply for Spanish citizenship.
Cubans are the tenth most nationalized in Spain
The Spanish press report adds that Colombians were the second group of foreigners to receive the most Spanish nationality, with 11,125 cases. They are followed by Ecuadorians (10,845), Bolivians (9,016), Dominicans (8,100), Venezuelans (8,036) and Pakistanis (6,400).
The last places in the ranking are occupied by Hondurans (5,778), Peruvians (5,152) and Cubans (4,780). In other words, in 2022, nearly 5,000 Cubans living in Spain were naturalized as Spaniards. This number would be much higher if those from Cuba or other parts of the world had received Spanish nationality through the Law of Democratic Memory (LMD). ) or “grandchildren’s right” as it is called in Latin America.
As expected, among the “top ten” nationalities there are many Latinos with strong cultural and family ties to Spain, which can be traced back to the colonial era and the multiple migration crises from Spain to America.