TIRANA, April 7 – Albanians were the second largest citizenship of origin to be granted citizenship of one of the member states of the European Union in 2018. According to data published by Eurostat in 2018, more than 47,400 Albanians were provided with EU passports, accounting for 7 percent of passports issued in total by all member countries. Albanians came second only to Moroccans, who were granted 62,700 EU passports or 10 percent of the total.
Moreover, the majority of Albanians received Greek citizenship and Italian citizenship, precisely 51 percent and 41 percent of the group, respectively. These two countries remain to be the most preferred destinations for Albanians since the early 1990s, when borders were opened after the fall of communism in Albania. Nevertheless, during the past few years more Albanians have chosen countries in western Europe; after Italy and Greece, Belgium is ranked third or the highest number of issued passports, with 390 passports in 2018, followed by Germany with 340, France with 294 and Sweden with 119.
However, Eurostat reports that grants of citizenship decreased for Albanians by 19 percent, from 58 500 in 2017 to 47 400 in 2018.
Among the Western Balkans, the number of passports issued to Albanians is several times higher than the countries in the region. Behind the Albanians are the Serbs with 8600 passports, then the Kosovo citizenswith over 7900, the Bosnians with 7200 and the Macedonians with almost 6000 passports.
