In 2014, 80,442 citizens of Belarus were granted temporary or permanent residence permit in EU member states. 92 % of them chose Poland, Eurostat reports.
In 2014, citizens of Ukraine (302 800 beneficiaries, or 13.1% of the total number of new residence permits issued in the EU) continued to receive the highest number of permits, ahead of citizens of the United States (199 200, or 8.6%), China (169 700, or 7.4%) and India (134 900, or 5.8%). A third of all new residence permits issued in the EU in 2014 were issued to citizens of these four countries.
Ukrainians received permits mainly in Poland, US and Chinese citizens in the United Kingdom. Of the 302 800 Ukrainians granted residence permits in the EU in 2014, more than 80% were recorded in Poland (247 400). Of the 199 200 US citizens granted residence permits, almost 70% were registered in the United Kingdom, as were almost 45% of the 169 700 Chinese.
The reasons for residence permits being issued differ between citizenships. Among the top 10 citizenships granted permits in the EU in 2014, Ukrainians benefited from residence permits mainly for employment reasons (68.2% of the first residence permits issued to Ukrainians in 2014), as did Indians (40.5%). Chinese (59.4%) and Brazilians (46.4%) were given residence permits mainly for education reasons, while Moroccans (66.8%), Turks (48.6%) and Russians (34.8%) benefited from residence permits mainly for family reasons.
In 2014, the number of Belarusians (80,500) who were permitted to reside in EU member countries exceeded the number of Russians (74,000)
It is not known why Belarusian citizens change their residence. While Ukrainians move to other countries due to work purposes and Russians – due to family reasons, Belarusians do so ‘for other reasons’
