TNAG-2199-FCO40-3154-Portuguese-citizenship-as-applied-to-residents-of-Macau-comp-1990 — Page 8

(iii) no criminal record;

(iv) ability to earn a living:

(v)

proof of a "cultural" connection with Portugal.

4.

All decisions on citizenship are referred back to Lisbon for a

decision although those refused do have recourse to the Portuguese Courts if they wish to appeal. The majority of Portuguese passport holders in Macau almost certainly obtained their citizenship before

the tightening of the rules mentioned above. These rules were

incorporated into Portuguese nationality law in 1981. The vast

majority of the residents of Macau would not qualify for citizenship

as they would not meet the qualification requirements.

5.

We have also ascertained that Portuguese citizens in Macau have

the right to vote in metropolitian parliamentary and presidential

elections provided they have registered as a voter with the appropriate authority in Portugal.

Mr Waddington

IN CONFIDENCE

MACAU PEOPLE WHO MAY COME TO PORTUGAL

Articles

1. Attached is a translation of the 1981 Portuguese nationality law which is the key to the matter. I and 6 are the most relevant. The Portuguese authorities themselves neither in Macau let alone Portugal know exactly how many people from Macau might be eligible to reside in Portugal and obtain documents which would then enable them to go to UK. For a start no one knows the population of Macau. Nor is there a strict system of identity cards as in Hong Kong. But we do know (from the Portugese Foreign Ministry) that the following numbers of Portuguese passports were issued in Macau between 1984 and 1988:

1984 - 21,799

1985 22,487

-

,

1986 16,789

-

1987 15,469 1988 14,239

Total

-

90,783

Up till early 1989, these passports issued in Macau were only valid for 5 years, but subsequently passports were issued valid for 10 years for those over the age of 25. Our source claimed that in order to obtain these passports, the applicants must be holders of an/identity document and passport from birth. In addition, the British Trade Commission in Hong Kong has been told that there are 14,000 plus Portuguese passport holders

But registered with the Portuguese Consulate in Hong Kong. this figure may include people who obtained their passports in Macau and therefore should not be automatically added to the total of 90,783 mentioned above.

2. It may be that when your Portuguese opposite number insisted this morning that only 3-4,000 Macanese could come to Portugal,

the he was using the terms Macanese to mean Chinese as is custom in Macau itself. This would not be an implausible figure, as there are extremely few Chinese in the Macau administration unlike the Hong Kong administration. And even fewer who could meet any seriously applied requirement to speak Portuguese. He may not have been considering the "Portugese" in Macau, ie the 80, 000-100,000 referred to above, since many of them already have probably got Portuguese passports or other docu- ments which would enable them to come freely to Portugal and are not "newcomers" in the sense that Hong Kong Chinese coming to the UK would be considered by us to be additions to our own population. In this context, as you are probably aware. there is an important difference between British and Portuguese society and customs in Hong Kong and Macau. Very few full British citizens resident in Hong Kong have actually been born

IN CONFIDENCE

/there

IN CONFIDENCE

ethnialy

L

there or resided there all their lives. But many of the "Portuguese" in Macau have been born there and resided there continuously. Moreover, few British have inter- married with Chinese in Hong Kong, whereas many Portuguese have done so in Macau. Because Portuguese Nationality Laws, unlike our own have been based on the "lex sanguinis" the people of mixed blood resulting from these marriages have been treated as Portuguese. The Minister could well have been thinking of this category when he used the word "Macanese" because in some circles, it is also common to use this term exclusively for referring to assimilated Chinese, who are not/pure Chinese nor pure Portuguese.

t/pure

3. It is also relevant to consider how the 1981 Nationality Law is actually applied, particularly in Portugal itself rather than in Macau. When I spoke recently to the President of the Inter-Ministerial Commission on Macau, he insisted that each application to obtain Portuguese nationality was being and would be considered on its individual merits and there was no question "automatic" right of entry, let alone "automatic" granting of passports. Nevertheless, we have heard other stories, notably as regards Hong Kong BDRS, who have obtained and are obtaining first a residence permit for Portugal, which enables them to stay in the country; then an Identity Card which subsequently enables them to apply for Portuguese nationality, and ultimately a Portuguese passport. This laxity as regards Hong Kong Chinese is perhaps not un- helpful to our policy of trying to shore up confidence in Hong Kong.

4.

A final consideration, which is perhaps worth bearing in mind, is that there are far fewer Chinese middle class in Macau relative to the total Chinese population than there are Chinese middle class in Hong Kong relative to the Hong Kong population. Chinese society in Macau is much less developed. There are a very few rich merchants, some of them assimilated with the Portuguese element through inter- marriage; and a great many poor workers. Because the Portuguese occupy almost all the civil servant ranks of any importance down to a much lower level than was the case in Hong Kong: and because the judicial system in Macau is still entirely run in Portuguese: and finally because Hong Kong

a much bigger attraction for anyone with any ambition, such Chinese from Macau as wanted to make their way up in the world have tended to leave already. Quite apart, therefore, from the Portuguese Nationality Law and its interpretation, there is unlikely to be a mass immigration of Chinese from Macau to Portugal. There are probably more Chinese of Macau origin in the UK and Holland than there are in Portugal, not least because up till now there have been plenty of Portuguese in Portugal willing to do menial jobs and therefore no need economically to pull in cheap labour from elsewhere. could now be changing.

AR

But this

4 May 1990

C Drace-Francis

IN CONFIDENCE