Digging into the past can be a double-edged sword, after all, you never know what you might find once you open Pandora’s box. You might discover that your father, grandfather or great-grandfather was a philanthropist, a poet or an explorer, or that he was a serial killer, a dictator or a fraudster. But that risk is bearable given the enormity of the potential benefits. For example, if you are British, you might get a European Union passport, the most valued in the world (because of the number of countries you can visit without a visa).
Before Brexit, British citizens who, for whatever reason, were not sure of their origins took DNA tests to find out who the father or mother was who abandoned them as children without further ado, to find possible siblings and cousins lost in the world, out of curiosity or morbid curiosity. After leaving the EU, the goal is to obtain a passport with which to cross borders without anyone asking anything, or to work and live in any of the 27 countries like a native, or to travel to Europe without paying a fee (from November, Britons will have to pay seven euros to go as tourists to the continent, a Brussels regulation).
Applications for Irish passports by Britons have increased by 1200% since Brexit was implemented
If someone is English and has the surname Flanagan, they have a very high chance of having Irish ancestors that would warrant a passport (applications have increased by 1,200% since Brexit), just as an Argentine who answers to Martinelli is almost guaranteed an Italian one, and one who answers to Gonzalez, a Spanish one. But there are many more complex cases that require the preparation of a family tree and a DNA test by companies such as Ancestry , 23andMe y MyHeritage It is such a boom that it has even made it to a BBC programme, Family secrets (the equivalent of the Who knows where from TVE in the nineties).
And not just on these islands to automatically become an EU citizen, but in the world at large. It is estimated that forty million people on the planet have undergone DNA tests to find out where they come from, and perhaps gain access to a sought-after passport. Although some countries make it more difficult than others. The United States, for example, doesn’t care if your grandfather was American if you weren’t born in the country. On the other hand, the fact of having seen the light in the land of opportunity is enough in itself to have citizenship.
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There are many descendants of Irish people around the world who do not know much about their past, either because their grandparents or great-grandparents emigrated, or because they are children of single mothers given up for adoption when the Catholic Church was the great power in power and do not know who their biological parents are. The Foreign Office of the Republic of Ireland accepts a DNA test to issue a passport, subject to certain requirements, to those who have up to one great-grandparent born in the country.
But if a Briton wants an EU passport and tests show that he or she has not a drop of Spanish, Italian, German or Greek blood, he or she need not despair because there are other ways to get one, although it will be much more expensive and lately things have become a little tougher. Various countries offer the so-called golden visa a gateway first to a permanent residence permit and then to nationality in exchange for an investment of around half a million euros.
In the case of a British person, once he finds out that he has an ancestor from Ireland or another EU country, the bureaucracy consists of going to court to have his birth certificate rectified, and from there requesting a passport from the consulate of the state in question. This is what Richard Sayers, a business analyst from Liverpool, did for example. He had no idea who his father was and went to the programme to find out. Family secrets The BBC reported that he now lives in La Manga del Mar Menor and says he is delighted. Sara Claxton, a member of the Great Britain Olympic team, discovered through a DNA test that her father was an American Indian and wants to apply for US citizenship.
The great irony is that some of the Britons now desperately seeking an EU passport voted for Brexit. Against ignorance, even the gods battle in vain…
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