As Deutsche Welle reports, this is evidenced by data published by the European statistical office Eurostat in Luxembourg. The main flow of legal migration to the European Union last year came from Ukraine – and it turned out to be much larger than many had assumed. Every fifth foreigner (21.1%) who received a residence permit or other status allowing a stay of more than three months in an EU country in 2017 holds a Ukrainian passport.
This Eurostat statistics covers only those citizens from non-EU countries who applied for the first time or had not done so for more than six months (extensions of existing permits were not counted).
Ukrainians come to work
Of the 3.1 million such foreigners who received the right to stay in the EU in 2017, almost 662,000 are citizens of Ukraine. At the same time, 88 percent of them came to work. Thus, migration from Ukraine is a pronounced labor migration. Another specific feature: it is largely focused on a single country – Poland.
Polish authorities issued new residence permits to over 585,000 Ukrainian citizens last year. In fact, this is what turned Poland into the European leader in receiving foreigners. The other two largest groups of foreigners who came from non-EU countries to live and work in this country last year are Belarusians (almost 43,000) and Moldovans (almost 8,000).
However, Ukrainians rank first among recipients of residence permits in five other EU countries: Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Estonia. In addition, labor migrants from Ukraine, according to Eurostat, entered the top three in 2017 also in Bulgaria, Denmark, Latvia and Croatia. Thus, they head mainly to Eastern European countries, whose residents, in turn, leave in large numbers for work in Western European EU states.
Syrians seek asylum
The second largest group of foreigners who first received the right to reside in the EU in 2017 are Syrians, but there were almost three times fewer of them than Ukrainians: 223,000. In almost all cases, this involves granting asylum or family reunification.
Citizens of Syria last year formed the largest group of arriving foreigners in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden (as well as in Norway, which is not an EU member). They also entered the top three in Finland.
The largest number of Syrians, and by a wide margin, was taken in by Germany – 140,000. In second place in terms of the number of residence permits issued by German authorities are citizens of Afghanistan (almost 53,000), in third – Iraq (47,000). In total, Germany last year granted the right to stay in the country for more than three months to over 535,000 foreigners who came from non-EU countries, including labor migrants.
Chinese come to study
The third group of foreigners after Ukrainians and Syrians to receive permission to reside in the EU were Chinese from the PRC and Hong Kong: there were 193,000 of them. At the same time, 65% of them went to Europe to study, another 11% – to work. The Chinese are most interested in the United Kingdom: this country took in half of all arrivals – 96,000.
Accordingly, the Chinese formed the largest group of newly arrived foreigners in the UK last year, ahead of US citizens (75,000) and Indians (72,000). And the United Kingdom, in turn, became the third country after Poland and Germany to issue over half a million long-term residence permits on its territory in 2017.
As for the Chinese, they also entered the top three in Hungary, Greece, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania (as well as in Switzerland, which is not an EU member)