During 2024, more than 26,000 citizens of North Macedonia received residence permits for the first time in European Union countries, although the figure declined compared with the previous year.
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Eurostat data show that EU countries issued a total of 26,727 first residence permits to Macedonian citizens in 2024. Compared with the 31,876 permits recorded in 2023, this represents a decrease of approximately 16 percent.
Germany remained the leading destination for citizens of North Macedonia. Around 49 percent of all first residence permits issued to them in 2024 were obtained in the country.
Germany was followed by Croatia in second place with 16 percent, while Slovenia accounted for 9 percent of the permits. Italy had a share of 8 percent and Austria 6 percent.
The vast majority of new residence permits for Macedonian citizens were concentrated in these five countries.
Meanwhile, in 2019, European Union member states issued around 3 million residence permits to citizens of non-EU countries. Eurostat statistics place North Macedonia among the five leading nationalities receiving permits in Croatia, Slovenia and Bulgaria.
Compared with 2018, the number of permits issued in 2019 increased by 5.8 percent, or around 163,000. This was the highest figure recorded during the 10-year period from 2009 to 2019.
In Croatia, citizens of North Macedonia received 4,295 residence permits in 2019. These represented 8.5 percent of the total number of permits issued in the country, while citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo received more permits than Macedonians.
Slovenia issued 2,112 residence permits to Macedonian citizens, accounting for 6.7 percent of the total. Bulgaria recorded 813 permits for citizens of North Macedonia, or 6 percent of the total.
Across the European Union, Poland led in the number of residence permits issued, with around 724,000. It was followed by Germany with 460,000, Spain with 320,000, France with 285,000 and Italy with 176,000.
Employment was the main reason for issuing permits, accounting for around 1.2 million cases, or 40.5 percent of the total. Family reunification followed with 810,000 permits, while 546,000 were issued for other reasons and around 400,000 for education.
By recipients’ nationality, Ukrainians received the largest number of permits in 2019, with around 757,000, or 25.6 percent of the total. They were followed by citizens of Morocco, India, China and Brazil.
Eurostat estimates that the choice of country of residence is influenced by several factors, including geographical proximity, historical and linguistic ties, as well as established migrant networks. /INA/
