The General Council of Italians Abroad (CGIE) released this Thursday (16) critical statistical data on Italian consular activity in Brazil. The numbers reveal a worrying and challenging reality.
The growing demand for consular services contrasts dramatically with available resources, leaving consular officials as true heroes in an unequal battle. At the heart of this issue is the lack of transparency in the use of funds allocated to recognition practices. Italian citizenship, for example.
Only with the revenue from emissions of passport, consulates in Brazil collected 2023 euros (more than R$9.536.476 million reais) in 53. Added to this amount is the 300 euro fee charged for recognition of citizenship. The data was requested by CGIE, but it has not yet been made available by the embassy.
“Transparency regarding the amount of money available for each consulate is essential to understand whether delays in processing requests for recognition of Italian citizenship in consular units can be attributed to the lack of economic resources. It is believed, in fact, that the fund financed with this fee — even if only 30% of the total — would be sufficient to solve the existing problems, known to everyone. Unfortunately, it is now evident that the fund in question is not used to address the issues encountered in this sensitive matter”, says the CGIE note, signed by Daniel Taddone, advisor to the CGIE, and sent to the Italianism.
Hiring did not keep up with the explosion in demand for services
The example of Consulate General of Italy in São Paulo, the largest in Brazil and one of the largest in the world, is illustrative.
In 2014, the organization served 179.679 Italian residents with 43 employees. In 2023, this number jumped to 344.811 residents, while the number of employees grew modestly to 47. These numbers do not include any temporary or outsourced workers from less sensitive areas.
However, this increase in the workforce has not kept up with the explosion in demand for services. In 2014, 10.345 passports were issued to 43 employees. But in 2023, despite more employees, at 47, the number of passports issued soared to 32.929, a 218% increase.
This burden is not restricted to issuing passports. Consulates handle a variety of services, from recognizing citizenship to issuing visas and registering with AIRE. However, the relationship between employees and subscribers is alarming. In Curitiba, for example, 18 employees take care of 144.506 registered Italians, an average of 8.028 for each employee.
The situation is only calmer at the Italian Embassy General in Brazil, where 32 employees manage the bureaucratic life of 23.678 registrants, with an average of 740 for each employee. It is important to note that the Embassy is a diplomatic institution and most of the employees are not dedicated to consular services.
Evident lack of labor
According to the note, there is an evident inadequacy of employees in relation to demand.
“Between 2017 and 2023, consular network staffing increased modestly by 9%. In the same period, the increase in the number of resident citizens was 52%. Thus, it is possible to verify the evident inadequacy of the personnel on duty in the seven consular offices operating in Brazil. A proportional increase in the number of employees in relation to the growth in the number of residents would bring the number of personnel in service in Brazil to 226 units (63 more than the 163 present in 2023). In 2023, the ratio between citizens registered in the consular register and personnel on duty is particularly high at the Consulate General in Curitiba: 1 official/employee for every 8.028 residents. At the Embassy in Brazil, this ratio drops to 780 citizens per employee/employee, but it is important to note that the Embassy is a diplomatic headquarters and the majority of its staff are not dedicated to consular services”, says the note.
This discrepancy between growing demand and available resources raises serious concerns about operational effectiveness and resource allocation in Italian consulates in Brazil.
If appropriate measures are not taken to address this gap, the ability of consulates to meet the demands of the Italian community will remain under threat, and the true heroes will face an ever-increasing workload.
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