According to official data from the government of Portugal, in the last 12 years more than 391,000 Brazilians obtained Portuguese nationality. Of these, more than 100,000 got it in the last two years.
The number of Brazilians with Portuguese nationality has been increasing non-stop for a decade, but in the last four years the growth has been almost exponential. From 2018 to 2021 alone, Portugal gained 192,521 new citizens from Brazil.
But the number gets even bigger. Adding the 252,000 citizens who already live in Portuguese lands with their situation regularized —and also believing in the local authorities—, we come close to 650,000.
Adding to it the thousands of Italians who are Brazilians, the other thousands that may result from the 2022 calculation (not yet accounted for) and more those who are still waiting for assistance (the queue lasts six months, according to the most optimistic ones), we can say that the total number will be close to 800 thousand. Even if they don’t all live in Portugal at the same time, it’s an impressive number.
When, in total, Portugal has just over 10 million residents —of whom around 400,000 still do not speak, because they are babies under four years of age—, we can say, without committing to error, that the Portuguese of Brazil is truly an official language of Portugal.
Without exaggeration, applying only cautious mathematics, we could say without fear that the “group” that speaks Brazilian in the streets of Portuguese cities and towns today represents more than 10% of the total speakers.
But taking an Uber or renting a taxi, having lunch and dinner in restaurants, shopping in stores, reading in libraries, learning in high schools, studying in universities or simply walking in the streets, the number seems much higher.
The sweet balance of Portuguese by Vinicius de Moraes overlaps with the sonorous frigidity of his fellow countrymen, Pessoa and Saramago. Life happens more and more on buses than on buses, and freshness is killed more and more in the fridge than in the fridge. The sound and words of the “Brazilian” language expand at the same rate as they shrink in the “Portuguese” language.
History has shown us that, in demographic movements, it has always been the hegemony of speakers by geographic unit that has defined languages, accents and accents. The exponential growth of the “Brazilian demography” in Portugal anticipates a new normative era for the Portuguese language.
The new proportionality in the coexistence of speakers in Portuguese territory confronts the language and its scholars with a need for reinvention — is this the right word?
In a first phase —already underway—, it occurs through the appropriation of Brazilian words and expressions by the Portuguese, especially by children and adolescents. But, briefly, due to imperatives of cohabitation, it will be necessary to define a new normative moment.
In a conversation with the Portuguese writer, curator and journalist Isabel Lucas, she anticipates this movement by stating: “The future of the Portuguese language and its great power is Brazil”.
Will you need Portugal?
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
