Some 500,000 Albanians live in Italy, ISTAT says

TIRANA, August 7 – Albanians are the second largest non-EU group in Italy with around half a million migrants, according to data published by Italian Institute of Statistics ISTAT. Data show that despite the crisis in the neighbouring country off the Adriatic the number of Albanians in Italy continues increasing, but at sharply slower pace. In January 2013, ISTAT reports some 497,761 Albanians residing in Italy, only 6,266 people more compared to 2012, which is one of the lowest historical growth rates. ISTAT data show some 66 percent of the Albanian community in Italy or 328,502 have obtained stay permits. In 2012, there were some 19,000 new arrivals of Albanians to Italy, a considerably lower figure compared to the previous two years. The majority 60 percent of permits to the Albanian community were issued for family reasons, 18.6 percent to work, 3 percent to study. Latest data show some 8,101 Albanians were granted Italian citizenship in 2012.
Among non-EU citizens residing in Albania, the Moroccans rank first with 513.374, followed by Albanians with 497.761, the Chinese with 304.768, Ukrainians with 224.588
Foreigners residing in Italy on January 1, 2013 climbed to around 4.4 million, an 8.2 percent increase compared to 2012.
The distribution of foreign residents on the Italian territory is not uniform. 86% of foreigners reside in the North and Centre areas of the country, the remaining 14% in the South.
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 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.