More than 211,000 children under the age of 15 received their first residence permits in the EU during 2020, mainly for reasons related to family formation and reunification, which account for 68 per cent of all first permits issued to children in the EU.
Data from Eurostat, the European Statistics provider, shows that in addition, another 96,000 first permits were issued to children for other reasons, including international protection, while 4,000 were issued for education-related reasons, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
While Germany, Spain, Italy and Sweden show the highest percentage of first residence permits issued to minors, governments with the least permits include Switzerland (127), Ireland (167), followed by France and Lithuania (179) and Croatia (363).
In addition, the proportion per 100,000 children under the age of 15 is 386 permits in the EU, with the highest proportion reported in Sweden (1,136 per 100,000 children under the age of 15), Slovenia (1,109), Luxembourg (943) and Portugal (893). ). On the other hand, the smallest ratio of first residence permits per 100,000 children was reported in Ireland (17).
However, on a broader spectrum, the top five citizenship permits were issued to people from Asia (66,562), who make up 32 percent, followed by Africa with 27 percent (57,613) and Europe (51,023-24 percent). North and South America make up ten percent of all permits issued to children under the age of 15 in EU member states.
Moreover, for citizenship permits issued to Asians, 18 percent of them were issued to Syrians, followed by Indians (17 percent), Pakistanis (11 percent), Chinese (ten percent) and Bangladeshis (six percent).
The second continent to receive most of the first residence permits for family reasons for children under 15 is the African continent, with 57,613 of them – seven percent of which were issued to Eritrean and Egyptian citizens each. In addition, six percent of the beneficiaries were from Nigeria and four percent from Senegal.
Of the 51,023 residence permits issued to children under the age of 15 in 2020, 19% were from Ukraine, which also compensates for the nation with the highest residence permits issued last year. In addition, data for October 2021 show that 293,000 permits were issued to Ukrainian citizens in Poland alone.
In addition, most of the permits were issued to the Balkan countries as the Albanians hold second place with 18 percent, followed by Kosovo and Russian citizens, with 11 percent each. In addition, ten percent of all permits granted to the category come from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
While North, Central and South America constitute the lowest number of permit recipients, 4,786 were issued to North America. Beneficiaries in Central and South America reach 20,523 approvals received, with 45 percent of them issued to Brazilian citizens, seven percent to Colombians, and six percent to citizens of each country – Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Peru.
Because 336 EU permits have been issued to citizens of Oceania, including Australia, New Zealand and Oceania, 0.5% of residence permits have been issued to stateless persons, which is 955 permits. In addition, four percent of permit recipients were from unknown countries, making up 9,160 beneficiaries.
However, when looking at the bilateral flows between member states and third countries in 2020, the top three flows of minors in this category who received a family-related permit were between Morocco and Spain (20,900 children), Brazil and Portugal (7,300), and Syria and Germany (6,500).