Starting this Monday (5), Santa Catarina gains a new direct connection point with Italy. The Consulate General in Curitiba inaugurates its Sportello Consolare in Florianópolis, located in Corporate Park (SC-401). The opening is a logistical relief for thousands of descendants, but the status of the new unit reignites an old debate about the diplomatic autonomy of Santa Catarina.
Logistical advancement, bureaucratic barrier
The installation of the Front office (consular office) In practice, the project in Florianópolis aims to eliminate the need for constant trips to Paraná. There, citizens will be able to access services such as biometric data collection for passports and document delivery.
However, there is a crucial technical difference that separates the new unit from a... Career Consulate:
- Sportello Consolare: It's an administrative extension. It processes requests, but the final decision, the issuing of documents, and citizenship matters remain centralized in Curitiba.
- Career Consulate: It has full autonomy, its own budget, and a career consul sent from Rome. It is the structure that Santa Catarina, due to its significant migratory population, has been demanding for decades.
The critique: A "tutored" state?
Despite Santa Catarina being the second state with the largest number of descendants of Italians in Brazil, Italian diplomacy maintains the state under the jurisdiction of Paraná. For leaders of the Italian-Santa Catarina community, the new office is seen as a "palliative measure".
The central criticism is that, while states with smaller or equivalent colonies have full capitals, Santa Catarina It remains "overseen" by Curitiba. The volume of cases generated in cities like Criciúma, Nova Veneza, and Blumenau would justify, according to experts, a career structure that could address the pent-up demand without depending on Paraná's operational capacity.
According to data from Consulate General of Italy in Curitiba, by the end of 2023, 160.819 Italian citizens were registered in Aire (Registration of Italians Residing Abroad) in those two states.
In Paraná, 88.931 Italian-Brazilians were registered. while Santa Catarina totaled 71.888.
