{"id":538581,"date":"2026-05-01T17:43:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T14:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=538581"},"modified":"2026-05-01T19:23:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:23:27","slug":"belarusians-received-around-1-million-first-residence-permits-in-eu-countries-over-four-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/belarusians-received-around-1-million-first-residence-permits-in-eu-countries-over-four-years","title":{"rendered":"Belarusians Received Around 1 Million First Residence Permits in EU Countries Over Four Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>From 2020 to 2024, European Union countries issued 981,679 first residence permits to Belarusian citizens. The data was presented during the launch of the study \u201cCounting Belarusians Worldwide\u201d at the 5th Conference of Belarusians Worldwide, taking place today in Warsaw.<\/p>\n<p>These figures should be treated with caution, warned <strong><b>Anastasiya Svirkova<\/b><\/strong>, a representative of the People\u2019s Embassy of Belarus in Austria.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWhy can we not say that this is the number of Belarusians? Because when we talk about first permits issued, a person may have changed several countries over these years and obtained a new residence permit in each country\u201d<\/em>, Svirkova said.<\/p>\n<p>It is therefore more accurate to consider the number of valid residence permits in the EU, which now stands at around 550,000. However, these data do not include Belarusians who have already obtained another citizenship or reside in a country on other legal grounds.<\/p>\n<p>The peak in the issuance of first residence permits to Belarusians in the EU occurred in 2021\u20132022, followed by a decline in 2023\u20132024.<\/p>\n<p>Number of first residence permits issued to Belarusians in the EU by year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2020 \u2014 63,500\u201363,900<\/li>\n<li>2021 \u2014 149,000\u2013150,000<\/li>\n<li>2022 \u2014 309,000\u2013312,000<\/li>\n<li>2023 \u2014 281,300<\/li>\n<li>2024 \u2014 174,800\u2013175,000<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Gender Balance of Belarusian Migration<\/h2>\n<p>The gender distribution of migrants corresponds to the overall demographic structure in Belarus. In 2022, the share of men in emigration increased noticeably, but by 2023 this effect had evened out.<\/p>\n<p>There are both advantages and disadvantages to this gender stability, said <strong><b>Vadzim Mazheika<\/b><\/strong>, head of the Kosciuszko Institute of Security.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cOn the one hand, such stability means that people have less motivation to return\u2026 But there is also a positive aspect, because such gender balance in migration stabilises and helps preserve Belarusian identity\u201d<\/em>, Mazheika said.<\/p>\n<h2>Serial Migration<\/h2>\n<p>A distinctive feature of the current wave of migration is its serial nature. Belarusians often change several countries of residence after leaving Belarus.<\/p>\n<p>Among the reasons for serial migration, Mazheika cited the lack of opportunities for integration in host countries.<\/p>\n<h2>Main Destinations of Belarusian Migration<\/h2>\n<p><em>\u201cThe main hub of Belarusian migration is, clearly, Poland. There is no doubt about this in the figures\u201d<\/em>, Mazheika said.<\/p>\n<p>Poland accounts for 65% of all valid residence permits and 86% of first residence permits issued in the EU to Belarusians.<\/p>\n<p>A growth destination is Spain, where the peak in residence permits issued to Belarusians occurred in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>A declining destination is Georgia, from which an outflow of Belarusians has been observed.<\/p>\n<p>A consolidation point is 2026, when Belarusian migrants are transitioning from relocation and initial legalisation to obtaining long-term residence permits and passports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From 2020 to 2024, European Union countries issued 981,679 first residence permits to Belarusian citizens. The data was presented during the launch of the study \u201cCounting Belarusians Worldwide\u201d at the 5th Conference of Belarusians Worldwide, taking place today in Warsaw. These figures should be treated with caution, warned Anastasiya Svirkova, a representative of the People\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":538580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/69f4d3830314c.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Belarusians Received Around 1 Million First Residence Permits in EU Countries Over Four Years"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338,143127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-538581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news","category-society"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}