Brussels (MAP) - Over 2.3 million first residence permits were issued in the European Union (+12.5 % compared to 2012), including 101,970 granted to Moroccans, according to new figures released Wednesday by the EU statistics body, Eurostat.
Moroccans, thus, ranks 6th beneficiary of first residence permits issued in the EU 28 countries after Filipinos (107,848), Chinese (165,569), Americans (171,800), Indians (200,844) and Ukrainians (236,691).
66,774 (65 %) of the permits granted to Moroccan were for family reasons, 19,127 (18.8 %) for employment reasons and 9,345 (9.2 %) for educational reasons, Eurostat noted.
According to the same source, out of the 101,970 new Moroccan residents in the EU, 37,436 were registered in Spain, 25,165 in Italy, 24,726 in France and 5,641 in Belgium.