Albanian youth under the age of 19 are receiving most of the residence permits being issued by European Union member states for non-EU citizens, with children under the age of 4 holding the record.

According to Eurostat data, in 2020 a total of 19.5 thousand residence permits were issued for family reasons for Albanian citizens, in one of the EU countries. Of these, 52% were under the age of 19, up from 48% the previous year.

According to Eurostat, almost 30% of the total permits issued were for children under 4 years old, an indication that mainly young families are leaving. Last year this weight was 24%.

9.8% of residence permits for family reasons were issued to children aged 5-9; 7.2% for the age group from 10-14 years. About 5% of the total was given to young people aged 15-19.

Italy, Greece and Germany are issuing the largest share of permits for children under 4 years old. While Italy and Greece have been traditional immigrant destinations, Germany is growing in recent years, mainly due to people fleeing on work permits to the country with the largest economy in Europe.

Second in Europe for the high weight of children under 15 who received a residence permit

According to the Eurostat map, Albania is the second in Europe for the high weight of children under 15 who received residence permits from non-EU countries, with 18%, very close to Ukraine, which was first with 19%. Third is Kosovo, with 11%, followed by Russia with 11% and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with 10%.

According to Eurostat, in 2020, a total of 211,000 children (under the age of 15) who were not EU citizens were granted their first EU residence permit for reasons related to family formation and reunification ( representing 68% of all first child permits granted in the EU). Another 96,000 first permits were granted to children for other reasons, including international protection, while about 4,000 were granted for education-related reasons.

The number of first residence permits issued to children for family reasons corresponds to a ratio of 386 per 100 000 inhabitants of EU children under 15 years of age. Among these children, 61% were under five years old.

The Member States that issued the largest number of such permits were: Germany (44,400, or 21%), followed by Spain (43,400, 21%), Italy (31,500, 15%) and Sweden (20,800, 10%).

In relative terms, the ratio of such permits issued per 100,000 children was highest in Sweden (1,136 per 100,000 children under the age of 15), Slovenia (1,109), Luxembourg (943) and Portugal (893). In contrast, the lowest ratio of first-time residence permits per 100,000 children was in Ireland (17).

According to bilateral flows between Member States and third countries in 2020, the three main flows of children under the age of 15 who have been issued a family leave were between Morocco and Spain (20,900 children), Brazil and Portugal (7,300 ), and Syria and Germany (6,500).

283 thousand Albanians have received residence permits for family reasons since 2010

Since 2021 there are about 283 thousand Albanians who have received residence permits for family reasons in one of the countries of the European Union, according to INSTAT.

In 2019 was marked the highest number of total residence permits, since 2010, with about 35 thousand, reflecting the new wave of immigration that began after 2016. In 2020, there are 445 eje as a result of the situation and the constraints created by the pandemic.

(Source: Monitor)