Over 100 thousand Albanians from Albania and Kosovo obtained for the first time a residence permit in a European Union country during 2019, while stands out the fact that Croatia is turning into a new opportunity to emigrate.
Eurostat data show that 60,259 people from Albania and 43,677 from Kosovo gained the right to be resident in one of the EU countries, a right gained mainly from family reunions, employment contracts, or and the right to study.
The number of residence permits runs parallel to the tendency of Albanians to emigrate, a tendency which is different for Albanians in Albania and Kosovo.
During 2019, Albanian Albanians received residence permits mainly from Italy (21,221 permits), Greece (15,733 permits) and Germany (12,014 permits).
There is a growing tendency to relocate to Croatia (2,216 permits), mainly for work. While in total, of all permits obtained by Albanians in Albania, only 3.7% of residence permits (2,224 permits) were issued for education - for Kosovo Albanians this ratio is only 2% (894 permits).
The data do not include Great Britain, which has officially left the EU, while from the big countries it is noticeable that France (2,344 permits) gave very few residence permits, despite the tendency of Albanians to emigrate there is high.
For Kosovo Albanians, the trend has been mainly with relocation to Germany (22,128 permits) followed by Croatia (6,369 permits), Slovenia (5,862 permits), Italy (2,329 permits), France (1,942 permits) and Switzerland (1,778 permits).
The figures in question, which refer only to legal emigration, continue to be worrying indicators for the depopulation of Albania and Kosovo, as mainly young people are leaving.
Of course, a residence permit does not necessarily mean permanent relocation to an EU country, but the general feeling of Albanians remains that of not returning.
In terms of general statistics, Eurostat says that during 2019 there were about 3 million residence permits (2,953,138 permits) issued to non-European citizens, which compared to 2018, were 6% more.
Ukraine (756 thousand), Morocco (132 thousand) and India (130 thousand) are the countries whose citizens received more residence permits from the EU.