A total of 111 persons from 22 countries officially became Belizean citizens during a nationality ceremony held last Thursday. The new citizens came from Honduras, El Salvador, the United States, India, Bangladesh, Cuba, Canada, Nigeria, Mexico, Nicaragua, Belgium, Bolivia, China, France, Ghana, Haiti, Lebanon, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, and Zimbabwe. Honduras accounted for the largest group with 32 new citizens, followed by El Salvador with 28. Minister of Immigration, Kareem Musa, congratulated them:
Kareem Musa, Minister of Immigration
"A pathway to citizenship is not easy. But it has opened us up to skills, careers and work that we don't want to do or even to professions that did not exist before in Belize. It has kept us youthful, dynamic and entrepreneurial. It has catapulted and sculpted our character as a people with possibilities as we are all capable of reinventing ourselves as we choose. Many of you have resided in Belize for a considerable period. You diligently work, some often in challenging and low-paying jobs, while simultaneously supporting your families. Many of your children are born in Belize or have spent a substantial portion of their lives here. Their aspirations, your children's aspirations and dreams and patriotism are remarkably similar to ours. They are an integral part of our Belizean society. It may have started as the gentleman and his family who cuts the grass or the lady who sells coconut with her family by the roadside. Or maybe it was the tourist who visited San Pedro or Placencia and just had to buy an investment property. There are many stories, stories of strife, stories of falling in love and even stories of art."
"As a nation of immigrants, we are perpetually replenished with aspiring individuals who wholeheartedly believe in the Belizean dream."
