A ruthless table: Number of Romanians who obtain citizenships in other EU countries is growing more than those who run away from dictatorships

The number of Romanians who obtain citizenships in other EU countries keeps growing.

Only in 2016, 29,700 people swore to another member state, compared to 28,400 in 2015, according to the latest Eurostat data.

Of this total, 44%, namely 12,967 Romanians, obtained the citizenship in Italy.

The second country is Germany, which adopted 3,842 Romanians, followed by Hungary – 2,874 citizens, France – 1,694, Belgium – 1,535 and Spain – 1,469.

The new statistics reflect the decrease in the attractiveness of Spain, considering that the number of those who left to work in this country has drastically decreased compared to previous years.

The countries that Romanians prefer in terms of departures and citizenship are, except for Italy (which continues to attract Romanians due to language similarities), the UK and Germany, countries where the most educated and highly qualified people go.

Romanians (6th position) are the only Europeans that rank among top 10 citizens in the EU. Poles are on 12th position, with 19,800 citizens, that is, 10,000 less than Romanians:

At the EU level, nearly one million people (995,000) have been granted an EU country citizenship in 2016, compared to 841,000 in 2015 and 889,000 in 2014.

The largest groups of beneficiaries are formed by Moroccans (101,300 people), Albanians (67,500 people) and Indians (41,700).

Most citizenships were granted by Italy (201,591), Spain (150,944) and the UK (149,372). Romanians rank sixth.

Number of British citizens who have taken a citizenship in another EU country has doubled compared to previous year

Brexit has caused an increase in the number of British people who have applied and obtained a citizenship in an EU country, to be able to maintain their status as Europeans – this category registered the highest increase in the number of naturalizations in the EU: + 165%, from to 2,478 in 2015, to 6,555 in 2016.

As regards the states that granted citizenships, the most significant increase was registered by Croatia, where the number tripled – from 1,196 to 3,973 persons.