Immigrants who have fled Albania are now becoming citizens of EU countries with full rights. In 2024, around 48.2 thousand Albanian citizens obtained citizenship in one of the European Union countries, according to Eurostat data.
Obtaining citizenship is the process through which a person legally becomes a citizen of a country, acquiring rights and obligations towards it, which then enables the acquisition of the passport of the respective country.
Compared to 2023, citizenships granted to Albanian citizens by an EU country have increased by 8.1%. In the last three years, the EU has granted an average of 44-45 thousand citizenships per year to Albanians, the highest rates since 2018, indicating a new wave of immigration to the country.
Since 2010, around 632,000 Albanians have obtained a passport in one of the EU countries, while in the last decade alone 522,000 citizenships have been granted. (See chart: Citizenships granted to Albanian citizens by the EU). The highest level was in 2016 and 2016, with around 60-67,000 per year.
The figure of 522 thousand Albanians who have obtained EU citizenship in the last decade more or less coincides with the shrinking population in the country, which in the period between the two censuses of 2011-2023 decreased by about 420 thousand people, largely influenced by emigration, but also by the decline in the natural increase of the population, as a result of fewer births.
Italy leads, Greece most stingy
Italy is the main country that allows Albanians to obtain an Italian passport. Since 2008, when the first data was reported, this country has granted 375,000 citizenships to Albanians.
Greece, although it has a similar number of immigrants to Italy, at least around 500,000 each, has been more stingy with citizenships, granting 264,000 since 2007.
Even Germany is giving up.
In Germany, to get a passport you must first obtain citizenship, usually after about 5 years of residence, with German language skills (B1), sufficient income, no legal problems and basic knowledge of the country. Although the rules have been relaxed (from 8 to about 5 years), it remains stricter than many other EU countries with clear requirements for language, income and integration.
This country has been a favorite in the recent wave of immigration and it seems that many Albanians are meeting the requirements, as in 2024 Germany issued the highest number of citizenships ever granted to Albanians, with 310. For comparison, from 2002 to 2023, that is, in 21 years, this country had granted only about 8,100 citizenships.
In fourth place is Belgium, which has granted a total of about 8.7 thousand citizenships to Albanians since 2022, followed by France (6480), Sweden (4,219), Ireland (1,197), Spain (1,157), the Netherlands (1,137)
Taken from Monitor
