Analytics, Demography, Employment, EU – Baltic States, Integration, Labour-market, Statistics
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Friday, 29.03.2024, 16:19
First residence permits issued in the EU Member States remain above 3 mln in 2017; main beneficiaries from Ukraine and Syria
The increase in the total number of first residence permits in 2017 in
comparison with 2016 was mainly due to the increasing number of first permits
issued for employment reasons (up by 155 000, or 18%), family reasons (up by 49
000, or 6%) and education reasons (up by 30 000, or 6%), whereas the number of
first permits issued for other reasons decreased by 123 000 (-14%).
Highest
number of first residence permits issued in Poland, Germany and the United
Kingdom
In 2017, one out of five first residence permits was issued in Poland
(683 000, or 22% of total permits issued in the EU), followed by Germany (535 000,
or 17%), the United Kingdom (517 000, or 16%), France (250 000, or 8%), Spain
(231 000, or 7%), Italy (187 000, or 6%) and Sweden (130 000, or 4%). Compared
to the population of each Member State, the highest rates of first resident
permits issued in 2017 were recorded in Malta (23 permits issued per thousand
population), Cyprus (22), Poland (18), Sweden (13) and Luxembourg (12). For the
EU as a whole in 2017, 6 first residence permits were issued per thousand
population.
For
employment in Poland, for education in the United Kingdom
Poland (597 000 permits, or 59% of all permits issued for employment
reasons in the EU in 2017) was the top country for employment related permits.
The United Kingdom (180 000 permits, or 34%) was the top country in the EU for
education related reasons. With over 100 000 permits each, Germany (157 000, or
19%), Spain (126 000, or 15%), Italy (113 000, or 14%) and the United Kingdom
(101 000, or 12%) were the four Member States with the highest number of
permits issued for family reasons in 2017. Germany was also the top country in
the EU for other reasons with 277 000 permits (36%), issued in 2017, of which
the majority were for refugee status and subsidiary protection (248 000) and
protection for humanitarian reasons (21 000).
Employment
reasons tend to prevail across individual Member States
In 2017, in eleven Member States, the largest numbers of permits were
issued for employment reasons, with the highest shares observed in Poland (87%
of all residence permits issued in the Member State), Lithuania (74%), Croatia
(72%) and Slovenia (62%). In ten Member States, the main reason for issuing residence
permits was family related, with the highest shares being recorded in Italy
(60% of all residence permits issued in the Member State), Spain (54%) and
Belgium (51%). Education was the main reason in Ireland (58% of all residence
permits issued in the Member State), the United Kingdom (35%) and Romania
(34%). Other reasons were predominant in four Member States: Austria (62% of
all residence permits issued in the Member State), Germany (52%), Bulgaria
(39%) and the Netherlands (32%).
Half of
residence permits granted to seven citizenships
In 2017, citizens of Ukraine (662 000 beneficiaries, of which almost 88%
in Poland) continued to receive the highest number of permits in the EU, ahead
of citizens of Syria (223 000, of which almost two-thirds in Germany), China
including Hong Kong (193 000, of which almost half in the United Kingdom),
India (163 000, of which 44% in the United Kingdom) and the United States (147
000, of which over half in the United Kingdom), Morocco (108 000, of which 41%
in Spain) and Afghanistan (87 000, of which around 61% in Germany). About half
of all first residence permits issued in the EU in 2017 were issued to citizens
of these seven countries.
Ukrainians
for employment, Chinese for education and Moroccans for family reasons
The reasons for residence permits being issued differ between
citizenships. Among the top 10 citizenships granted permits in the EU in 2017,
Ukrainians benefited from residence permits mainly for employment reasons (88%
of the first residence permits issued to Ukrainians in 2017), Chinese for
education (65%), while Moroccans (67%) benefited from residence permits issued
mainly for family reasons. Other reasons (and specifically refugee status,
subsidiary protection and humanitarian status reasons) were predominant among
Afghans (92%), Iraqis (75%) and Syrians (71%).