Residence permits granted to non-EU citizens in EU in 2023 up 4.3% y/y
Residence permits granted to non-EU citizens in the EU reached 25.1 million at the end of 2023, marking a 4.3 per cent increase compared with the previous year, EU statistics agency Eurostat said on November 14.
Family reunification remained the leading reason for these permits, accounting for 33.7 per cent of the total, followed by employment-related permits (20.7 per cent).
Among the top citizenships, Moroccan citizens held the largest number of permits at 2.1 million, Turkish nationals followed closely with two million permits, while Ukrainians accounted for 1.5 million permits, and Chinese and Syrians citizens held more than a million.
Specific EU countries hosted large shares of certain citizenships; for instance, France accounted for 84.2 per cent of Algerian permit holders, Germany hosted 70.8 per cent of Syrians and 66.2 per cent of Turkish residents, while Spain was a primary host for British and Moroccan residents.
Between 2018 and 2023, the number of Moroccans, Russians, and Indians holding residence permits consistently rose, while the number of Ukrainian permit holders peaked in 2021.
The number of permits for citizens of China (including Hong Kong), Algeria, Syria remained steady, while Albanians were the only group to see a decline in the number of permits from 2022 to 2023.
Germany (5.7 million permits), France (4.1 million), Spain (3.8 million) and Italy (3.7 million) together accounted for almost 70 per cent of the total residence permits granted to non-EU citizens.
The number of people holding residence permits relative to the EU population was 56 permits per 1000 people at the end of 2023. Among the EU countries, the highest ratios were in Malta (200 permits per thousand people), Cyprus (142), Estonia (140) and Latvia (138).
Among all EU countries, 23 reported an increase in the stock of permits. The highest rate of increase was recorded in Lithuania where the stock of permits granted to non-EU citizens increased by 31.3 per cent, followed by Malta (up 26.8 per cent) and Croatia (up 26.4 per cent).
Among the 4 EU countries with the largest stocks of resident permits, Spain recorded the highest increase, as the number of permits rose by 5.6 per cent between the end of 2022 and the end of 2023.
Increases were also recorded in France (up 4.5 per cent) and Germany (up 4.1 per cent), while Italy reported a decrease (down 2.8 per cent).
Additionally, there was a reduction in the stock of permits granted to non-EU citizens in 3 other EU countries: in Hungary (down 0.6 per cent), in Latvia (down 3.2 per cent) and in Sweden (down 4.9 per cent).
At the end of 2023, about one-third (33.7 per cent) of all residence permits granted to non-EU citizens were for family-related reasons, with lower shares for employment reasons (20.7 per cent), refugee status and subsidiary protection (15.3 per cent) or education reasons (4.3 per cent).
Residence permits classified for “other reasons” accounted for 25.9 per cent of all permits, Eurostat said.
At the end of 2023, among the EU countries, more than half of all the residence permits granted to non-EU citizens in Belgium (57.1 per cent) were family-related while this share was slightly lower in Luxembourg (48.6 per cent), Sweden (48.0 per cent) and Italy (45.8 per cent).
Germany (2.1 million) and Italy (1.7 million) recorded the highest absolute numbers of permits issued for this reason.
More than half of the stock of residence permits for non-EU citizens at the end of 2023 was granted for employment reasons in Croatia (77.4 per cent), Lithuania (73.3 per cent), Malta (70.1 per cent), Poland (61.2 per cent), Slovakia (58.4 per cent), and Romania (52.1 per cent).
In absolute terms, Italy registered the highest number of residence permits for employment reasons (1.6 million), considerably greater than in Poland (666 330) where the second highest number was observed.
In Germany, refugee status and subsidiary protection accounted for close to half (46.1 per cent) of all residence permits for non-EU citizens at the end of 2023, with Sweden (24.4 per cent), Belgium (15.7 per cent), the Netherlands (13.7 per cent), Finland (12.6 per cent), France (12.3 per cent), Luxembourg (11.7 per cent) and Greece (10.8 per cent) also recording double-digit shares.
In absolute terms, Germany granted the highest number of residence permits to non-EU citizens for refugee status and subsidiary protection (2.6 million), followed by France (503 742), Italy (133 738), the Netherlands (112 438) and Sweden (109 880).
Across the EU, there was an increase of 28.3 per cent between the end of 2018 and the end of 2023 in the stock of residence permits granted to non-EU citizens.
The most rapid increase was recorded for residence permits granted for refugee status or subsidiary protection status, from 1.6 million to 3.8 million, an increase of 137.4 per cent.
Between the end of 2018 and the end of 2023, the increase in the stock of residence permits granted to non-EU citizens in the EU was influenced by a rapid rise in the number of permits granted to persons benefiting from refugee or subsidiary protection status.
The stock of residence permits was highest for citizens of Morocco (2.1 million) and Türkiye (two million), followed by citizens of Ukraine (1.5 million), China (including Hong Kong) and Syria (each accounting for more than a million). These were the only countries whose citizens held more than one million residence permits.
The next highest numbers were recorded for citizens of Russia (875 244), the United Kingdom (861 670), India (841 869) Albania (836 576), and Algeria (767 378). By the end of 2023, citizens of these 10 countries accounted for almost a half (47.1 per cent) of the total stock of residence permits held by non-EU citizens in the EU, Eurostat said.
(Photo: Council of the EU)
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