EU27 Granted 3 Million First Residence Permits to Third-Country Citizens in 2019

Almost three million people managed to get their very first EU residence permit, issued by one of the EU Member States in 2019, the statistical office of the European Union has announced.

According to Eurostat, which is responsible for publishing high-quality Europe-wide statistics and indicators that enable comparisons between countries and region, the 27 EU Member States issued the highest number of first residence permits recorded in the last ten years.

In a report of the office published on November 27, Eurostat notes that the number of first residence permits issued in 2019 was 5.8 per cent higher than the previous year, 2018, or 163,000 more permits issued. The increase was mainly driven by the higher number of first permits being granted for employment reasons.

The highest number of first residence permits was issued by Poland with 724,000 permits, followed by:

• Germany (460,000)
• Spain (320,000)
• France (285,000)
• Italy (176,000)
• Czechia (117,000)
• the Netherlands (102,000)
• Sweden (102,000)

“These eight Member States together accounted for nearly four out of five (77.4 per cent) of all first residence permits issued in the EU-27 in 2019,” Eurostat points out.

The number of first residence permits granted by the other Member States was each under 100 thousand.

Throughout the same year, employment-related first residence permits accounted for the highest number of first residence permits issued, – a total of 1.2 million or 40.5 per cent of all first permits issued.

Family-related reasons followed with 810,000, or 27.4 per cent and education-related reasons with 400,000 first permits, or 13.5 per cent of the total.  546,000 permits were issued for other reasons, accounting for the rest 18.5 per cent.

“…there was a modest increase in the number of permits issued for education reasons (up 3,000, or 0.8 per cent). By contrast, the number of first permits issued decreased for family (down 5,000, or 0.6 per cent) and other reasons (down 49,000, or 8.2 per cent),” the report of the EU statistical office shows.

According to data, which is not only the most recent data regarding first residence permits issued in 2019 but also the first data published in this regard for 2019, compared to the size of the resident population, the EU countries in total granted 6.6 first permits per 1,000 population.

Back in 2014, the ratio was at 4.0 permits issued per 1,000 population.

Most First Residence Permits in EU Are Granted for Employment Purposes

In 2019, first residence permits issued for employment reasons represented the highest number of first residence permits issued, amounting a total of 1.2 million or 40.5 per cent of all first permits issued.

Poland, which is the country with most first permits issued, is also the EU member with most employment first permits granted to third-country citizens.

“Indeed, the number of permits issued in Poland for employment-related reasons was almost ten times as high as in the next most common destinations, namely, Czechia (66,000 permits), Germany (also 66,000 permits) and Spain (63,000 permits),” Eurostat’s annual report on first residence permits explains.

Poland is not the only country in which first residence permits issued for employment accounted for over half of the total number of permits, as the case was the same in nine of the EU Member States, including:

• Croatia – 92.3 per cent
• Poland – 86.3 per cent
• Lithuania – 85.9 per cent

Data shows that when it comes to sexes, more than twice more men received a first residence permit for employment reasons (27.8 per cent of the total) compared to women (13.1 per cent).

Germany & Spain Are Top Countries With Most First Residence Permits Issued for Family Reasons

Germany remains the main destination country for first residence permit applicants wishing to join their families, with 167,000 permits of this kind issued in 2019 by the German authorities.

Spain follows with 144,000, then Italy with 101,000 and France with 98,000, all four accounting for 63 per cent of the total number of first residence permits issued in 2019 for family-related reasons.

In Italy and Belgium, on the other hand, family-related reasons were the most common reasons for issuing residence permits accounting for more than half of all the permits issued at a national level.

According to data, 16.9 per cent of all permits issued were accounted for by women who received first residence permits for family-related reasons, while the share of residence permits for the same reason among men was 11.5 per cent.

France – the Most Common Destination in EU-27 for New Students

When it comes to first residence permits issued for study purposes, France tops the table, with 90,000 first residence permits issued by France for study in 2019 alone – which is 22.6 per cent of all first study permits issued in EU-27.

On the other hand, in Ireland over half of the residence permits granted in 2019 were for education purposes, 58.6 per cent.

“Ireland and Denmark were the only EU Member States where the most common reason for granting a residence permit was education-related,” the report of Eurostat points out.

The difference between men and women receiving a first residence permit of education reasons was low, with 7 per cent of the total number of permits issued to women and 6.9 per cent to men.

Ukrainians Account for a Quarter of First Residence Permits Issued in EU-27

Citizens of Ukraine were the largest national group receiving first residence permits issued in the EU-27 in 2019 (25.6 per cent), accounting for over a quarter of the total first permits granted, followed by:

• Morocco – 133,000, or 4.5 per cent
• India – 131,000, or 4.4 per cent
• China (including Hong Kong) – 110,000, or 3.7 per cent
• Brazil – 101,000, or 3.4 per cent

“Citizens from Syria, Russia, Turkey, the United States and Belarus, all less than 100 000 permits issued, followed,” the report notes, explaining that over half – 54.9 per cent – of all first residence permits issued in the EU-27 in 2019 were issued to citizens of the ten countries mentioned above.

79.2 per cent of all Ukrainians received a first residence permit in Poland. The latter was also the main destination for Belarusian citizens, as Poland issued 77.2 per cent of all resident permits granted to citizens of Belarus in the EU-27 in 2019.

At the same time, almost nine-tenths (87.2 per cent or 660,000) of all Ukrainians who received a residence permit in the EU-27 in 2019, received it for employment-related reasons.

According to Eurostat, some of the factors that may influence the destination chosen by citizens of non-EU countries include:

• Geographical proximity – i.e., a high number of Ukrainians sought residence in the neighbouring country of Poland.
• Historical and linguistic links – i.e., a high number of Colombians, Venezuelans, and Peruvians sought residence in Spain, a high number of Moroccans, Algerians and Tunisians sought residence in France, and a high number of Angolans, Brazilians, and Cape Verdeans sought residence in Portugal, etc.
• Established migrant networks – i.e., a high number of Turkish citizens sought residence in Germany due to the large Turkish community in Germany.