Racialized Citizenship Loss, Acquisition and Contestation in Post-Colonial Portugal

The aftermath of Portugal’s transition to democracy and the end of its colonial rule saw two competing, contradictory developments take place at the same time. On the one hand, the 1976 Constitution established the prohibition of any privilege or discrimination based on ancestry, sex, race, or place of origin, and that foreigners and stateless persons must enjoy the same rights as Portuguese citizens. Yet, a Decree-Law of June 1974, just two months after the Carnation revolution, stripped most postcolonial subjects of Portuguese citizenship and the 1981 Nationality Act abolished the principle of ius solis. Building on two years of relational ethnography carried out in Lisbon, as well as on semi-structured interviews with policy makers and migrant activists, and a critical discourse analysis of policies and legislation, this article unpacks how the current law on nationality was developed, how it has been amended, challenged and contested over time. It focuses especially on the agency of the few racialised members of parliament who, in the 1980s and 1990s, played a crucial role in pushing for a revision of the citizenship requirements to make them more inclusive. In doing so, this article contributes to the current literature on how migration and racialization are co-constructed.