Portuguese Brazilians Portuguese : luso-brasileiros are Brazilian citizens whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Portugal. Most of the Portuguese who arrived throughout the centuries in Brazil sought economic opportunities. Although present since the onset of the colonization , Portuguese people began migrating to Brazil in larger numbers and without state support in the 18th century.
Nowadays, the Portuguese constitute the 2nd biggest group of foreigners living in the country the largest being the Bolivians , with an estimated , Portuguese immigrants currently living in Brazil. Five million Brazilians 2. Many more people are of Portuguese descent however. According to the Constitution of Brazil , the Portuguese people have a special status in Brazil. Article 12, first paragraph of the Constitution, grants to citizens of Portugal with permanent residence in Brazil "the rights attached to Brazilians", excluded from the constitutional prerogatives of Brazilian born.
Requirements for the granting of equality are: habitual residence permanent , the age of majority and formulation of request from the Minister of Justice. In Brazil, the Portuguese may require equal treatment with regard to civil rights; moreover, they may ask to be granted political rights granted to Brazilians except the rights exclusive to the Brazilian born.
In the latter case, this requires a minimum of three years of permanent residence. The use of citizenship by non-Brazilian nationals in this case, Portuguese is a rare exception to the principle that nationality is a sine qua non for citizenship, granted to the Portuguese β if with reciprocal treatment for the Brazilians in Portugal β due to the historic relationship between the two countries.
At the time the Portuguese Crown was focused on securing its highly lucrative Portuguese Empire in Asia, and so did little to protect the newly discovered lands in the Americas from foreign interlopers.
