Brexit fears encourage more Brits than ever to become Belgian
The ongoing Brexit saga coincides with a record number of UK citizens applying for and getting Belgian citizenship. According to provisional figures from the federal statistics bureau Statbel, a record number of Britons were granted Belgian citizenship during July of this year. The figures appear in an article in Friday’s edition of the daily ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’.
During July 2019 272 UK nationals were granted Belgian citizenship. This is 96 more (+55%) than the 176 UK national that gain the right to call themselves Belgian during June 2019. The figures for June were already record figures. During the first 7 months of this year 1,045 Britons became Belgian. This is 88% up on the figures from the same period last year.
Since June 2016, when a majority of UK voters voted in a referendum to leave the European Union, a total of 3,902 British people living in Belgium have obtained Belgian nationality. This is three times more than in the entire decade between 2006 and 2016.