TIRANA, Dec. 24 – Albanians make up the top foreign community in Greece and are the second-largest group of foreigners in Italy, a report by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union has shown.
Based on 2011 census data there were 480,851 Albanian migrants living in neighboring Greece, the country’s second top trading partner and the main source of remittances. The number of Albanian migrants in the neighboring country has apparently further declined due to the prolonged recession in Greece which has contracted its economy by about a quarter.
Meanwhile, Albanians were ranked as the second largest foreign community in Italy, the country’s top trading partner. Eurostat reports there were 495,709 Albanians living in Italy as of January 1, 2014, ranking the second largest foreign community after Romania.
The number of Albanians in the two neighboring countries could be far bigger as persons who acquire citizenship in a member state are no longer counted as foreign citizens in that country.
Albanians are one of the three largest groups of foreign residents of EU member states among countries outside the EU with around 1 million people.
