While widespread paranoia has peaked with the fear of an invasion of “barbarians” threatening our existence, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, in a recently published report, has set the record straight: in 2016, the issuance of residence permits soared.
The United Kingdom and Poland (two of the countries most strongly opposed to immigration) host the largest number of applicants, who primarily come to study or work. The newcomers are from Ukraine, Syria, the United States, and India.
France ranks fourth, with 7% of residence permits issued. The figures reported indicate that 10% of the permits are for work-related reasons. This is far from the widely held belief that this immigration is the main cause of unemployment in France.
To understand the discrepancy between behavior and reality, more than politics, one would need to turn to psychiatry!!!
It’s a record. In 2016, 3.4 million new residence permits, that is, permits of at least three months, were issued in the European Union to non-EU nationals, according to Eurostat.
This represents an increase of nearly one-third compared to 2015. And it’s the United Kingdom, a country preparing to leave the European Union, that tops the list of hosting nations, ahead of … Poland. However, the two countries are sought for very different reasons.
The United Kingdom welcomed a quarter of the new residence permit holders last year, totaling 866,000 people. Nearly half of them (42%) arrived to pursue studies, and only 13.5% came to work. These temporary migrants are mainly from the United States (21%), India (14%), and China (11%).
The situation is quite different in Poland. Warsaw welcomed 17.5% of non-Europeans, mostly Ukrainians (87.5% of the permits) who almost all come to work. The third host country is Germany (18% of the arrivals), primarily sought by Syrians (44% of the permits).
In France, arrivals are largely due to family reasons (40%) or educational objectives (31%), while employment accounts for less than 10% of the reasons for staying.
The new residents in France come from a variety of countries. Algeria accounts for 12.2% of the arrivals, followed by Morocco (11.6%) and China (6.9% of the entries).
