Slightly more than 10% of people who acquired the citizenship of a Member State of the European Union in 2021 are Moroccans, indicates a report by the office responsible for statistics at European Union level (Eurostat). published on March 1, 2023.
In fact, 86,200 Moroccans out of the 827,000 people have acquired the citizenship of a European State. Moroccans, Syrians and Albanians remaining the main beneficiaries as a year before. In 2021, 31% of people acquiring the nationality of an EU Member State were in the top 5, with Romanians and Turks for once ahead of Brazilians.
In 2021, as in 2020, Moroccans made up the largest group among new EU citizens (86,200 people, 71% of whom acquired Spanish or French nationality). In the top 10, Moroccans are ahead of Syrians (83,500), 70% having acquired Swedish or Dutch nationality. The Albanians are part of the podium with 32,300 people, 70% of whom have acquired Italian nationality.
Next come 28,600 Romanians, of whom 33% have acquired Italian nationality, 25,700 Turks (48% have acquired German nationality) and Brazilians (20,400), 65% having acquired nationality in Portugal or Italy. Algerians rank seventh with 19,300 naturalizations (80% having acquired French nationality). They are followed by Russians (17,300, 45% of whom have acquired German and French nationality) and 16,600 Pakistanis (62% have acquired Spanish and Italian nationality).
The general total of beneficiaries (827,000) is up 14% (+98,300 people) compared to one before. Most new citizenships in 2021 were granted by Spain (144,800, or 17% of the EU total), France (130,400, or 16%), Germany (130,000, or 16% ), Italy (121,500, or 15%) and Sweden (89,400, or 11%). France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Austria are the countries with the most citizenships with +43,900, +18,800, +17,700, +9,200 and +7,200 respectively.
On the other hand, the largest decreases were observed in Italy -10,300 Italian citizenships granted compared to 2020, Portugal -7,600, Greece -3,200, Finland -1,200 and Cyprus (-800). A total of 10 EU countries recorded a drop in the number of citizenships granted. Citizens of another EU country accounted for 13% of the total number of citizenships acquired.