Even before the dispute with Russia began battering their economy, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fled their country looking for a better life elsewhere. Ukrainians are now the largest group of migrants from non-European Union countries applying for residence in the bloc.
Eurostat said on Wednesday that the number of Ukrainians issued with EU residence permits rose by 48 per cent in 2013. Most Ukrainians moved to Poland looking for work. In total 236,691 permits were granted to Ukrainians, which means that the country has overtaken the US as the most common source country for migrants to the EU — India has also overtaken the US to take second place.
Immigration from Ukraine to Poland accounts for the entirety of the increase in residence permits issued, with 67,000 more Ukrainians applying for first residence permits in the country in 2013 than applied in 2012. A first residence permit refers to those issued to someone for the first time and so this figure doesn’t include people who are renewing existing permits.
This emigration is only likely to accelerate in 2014 as the Ukrainian economy suffers from the disruption created by the conflict between the government in Kiev and pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.
The total number of residence permits issued by EU countries was 2.36 million in 2013, a 12.5 per cent increase on 2012 but a 7 per cent decrease on 2008 as fewer are still applying for employment reasons.
The UK issued the most residence permits in europe: 30.7 per cent of the total. And was the most popular destination for those applying for reasons of education.