After a referendum in the UK, when the country voted for an exit from the European Union, the Lithuanians timidly started to talk about the fact that this political event will further alienate them from Lithuania.
10 months after this event, it became clear that it’s not just words: more and more inhabitants of Lithuania renounce the citizenship of Lithuania in hopes to find a home abroad. “We’ll figure something out, if necessary, will go anywhere, but not in Lithuania,” say many Lithuanians living in the UK.
When a citizen of Lithuania acquires citizenship of another country, he at the same time shall forfeit all rights and duties of a citizen of Lithuania. And he is deprived of citizenship by order of the Minister of internal Affairs. For this reason, in 2015, the citizenship of Lithuania has lost, preferring passport United Kingdom, 58 employees, and in 2016 — have 102.
“The results we calculate at the end of the year, so it is difficult to say how many people for this reason will lose the citizenship of Lithuania to 2017″, — said the representative of the migration Department Jovita Kuzmicka. — However, the trend is clear: increased number not only renounced the citizenship, but also the queries are made more often. People wonder what will happen if they accept the citizenship of another country is interested in the process itself”.
According to the expert, there is another category of people is undecided. They wait for the end of the debate on dual citizenship. “According to us famous studies, only 7% of immigrants in the UK thinking about returning to Lithuania, and 21% thinking about changing country, nevertheless among the possible areas of Lithuania” — says the member of the Seimas Good Borecene. According to her, to take the measures needed immediately after Breccia. “And now we lost a year and lost even more people,” she said.
In March of this year in the UK Lithuanian city of London club conducted a survey, in which the authors of the survey were interested in the influence of Breccia on living in the UK citizens of Lithuania. The survey was conducted online, the results were first presented April 1 in Brussels organized the discussion “the Impact of Breccia for citizens of Lithuania in United Kingdom”. In total, the questions were answered 1157 respondents. 30% of them live in the British capital London, the other in the province.
Seriously about returning home, I think only 7% of respondents of Lithuanian emigrants living in the UK. Another 21% say that, more likely, they go to another EU country, but not in Lithuania. More than half of respondents (55%) say that there is a likelihood that Breaksit will encourage them to seek British citizenship, even if it means the loss of Lithuanian citizenship.
