Eurostat: 26,700 Albanians granted EU 27 citizenship

TIRANA, June 13 – Albanians are one of the largest groups acquiring citizenship of an EU 27 member state. This is confirmed by Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union, whose latest data show some 26,700 Albanians were granted citizenship of an EU 27 member country in 2009. This makes Albanians the fifth largest group being granted citizenship in the EU 27 after Morocco (59,900), Turkey (51,900), India (31,100) and Ecuador (27,800). The member states with the highest concentration were Greece (84% from Albania)– meaning some 14,280 Albanians obtained Greek citizenshipءnd Italy, with 16 percent of the total citizenships granted or 9,504.
Albanians are one of the ten largest groups of foreign residents of EU member states, accounting for 3.2 percent of the EU total foreign population, stated a report issued by Eurostat. The EU’s statistical office ranked Albania as the sixth biggest foreign community resident in the EU 27 with around 1 million people.
Among the citizens of countries outside the EU27, the largest groups were from Turkey (2.4 million or 8% of the total number of foreign citizens in the EU27), Morocco (1.8 million or 6%) and Albania (1.0 million or 3%).
However, the number of Albanian residents living in the EU-27 is believed to be far bigger as more than 1 million Albanians live and work in Greece and Italy alone.