Ukrainians overtook Syrians and took first place in emigration to the EU
The main flow of legal migration to the European Union in the past came from Ukraine - and it turned out to be much larger than European officials expected. As a result, citizens of Ukraine were ahead of immigrants from Syria in the number of residence permits requested in Europe in 2017, with the main reason for them being the search for work, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
DW reports this , citing data released by the European statistical agency.
“The main recipients of initial residence permits in 2017 were people from Ukraine and Syria, while around 3,1 million such documents were issued in the EU,” Eurostat said.
Of the three million foreigners who received a primary residence permit in the EU in 2017 (that is, issued for the first time), about 662 thousand, or more than 21% of the total number of foreigners, were citizens of Ukraine. 88% of them received a residence permit in Poland.
Ukrainians occupy first place among recipients of residence permits in 5 more 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 go mainly to Eastern European countries, whose residents, in turn, in large numbers go to work in Western European EU countries.
By comparison, almost 223 thousand such permits were issued to people from Syria, mostly in Germany.
The main reason for Ukrainian citizens receiving such documents was employment (over 580 thousand people in 2017). Among Syrians, the main reason for requests for documents was humanitarian.
Ukrainians have overtaken Syrians and taken first place in emigration to the EU.