Malta with highest rate per population of first residence permits issued in EU

The highest rate of first residence permits issued in the European Union in 2017 when compared to total population was recorded in Malta, new data published by the EU’s statistical body Eurostat shows.

The data indicates that 10,974 first residence permits were issued by Malta to non-EU nationals in 2017, equating to 23 for per thousand residents – the highest rate in the European Union and Economic Area. Malta is followed by Cyprus (22 per thousand), Liechtenstein (21 per thousand), and Poland (18 per thousand). The EU average, meanwhile, saw six first residence permits issued per thousand residents.

A first residence permit is defined as a residence permit issued to a person for the first time. A residence permit is also considered a first permit if gap between the expiry of the previous permit and the start of validity of the new one is of at least six months, the document explains.

The majority of first residence permits across Europe were issued for employment, with 54.6 per cent of the permits issued by Malta being for such purposes, while 14.4 per cent were issued for family reasons, and another 13.9 per cent for education reasons. The remaining 17 per cent are registered as having been granted for “other reasons.”

These “other reasons” include permits issued for residence only (such as in the case of pensioners with sufficient financial means), international protection status (including refugee status and subsidiary protection), humanitarian reasons, permits issued to non-asylum related unaccompanied minors, victims of human trafficking and other reasons not specified (such as beneficiaries of national regularisation programmes).

Malta is one of eleven member states which predominantly issued residence permits for employment reasons, with states such as Poland, Lithuania, Croatia and Slovenia also providing a majority of permits for reasons of employment. Ten other member states, including Italy, Spain and Belgium, issued most residence permits for family reasons, whilst education was the predominant reason in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Romania.

The nationalities of those being issued with first residence permits in Malta is diverse, but most such permits were issued to Serbians (2,033), followed by Filipinos (1,180) and Indians (784). There were also 563 Macedonians receiving permits, along with 532 Libyans, 486 Russians, 472 Chinese, 405 Turks and 249 Syrians. At the other end of the spectrum were a small number of citizens from far-flung nations such as Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Chad, Madagascar, Lesotho, Guyana, Guatemala, Tanzania and Mongolia. Citizens from various Pacific islands such as Kiribati, Tuvalu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands also attained first residence permits in Malta last year.