EU27 Member States grant citizenships to 23,000 Algerians in 2008

A total of 23,000 Algerian people acquired citizenship of a EU27 Member State in 2008. Some 88 percent of them were granted French citizenship, said a news release from Eurostat on Tuesday.

• The total number of acquired citizenships is estimated at 696,000 compared with 707,000 in 2007. “The new citizens in 2008 came mainly from Africa (29 percent of the total number of citizenships acquired), non-EU27 Europe (22 percent), Asia (19 percent) and North and South America (17 percent),” said the release.
• “Citizens of one EU27 Member State who acquired citizenship in another Member State accounted for 8 percent of the total.”
• The largest groups that acquired citizenship of an EU27 Member State were citizens of Morocco (64,000 persons), Turkey (50,000), Ecuador (27,000), Algeria (23,000) and Iraq (20,000).
• The highest number of citizenships were granted by France (137,000 persons), the United Kingdom (129,000) and Germany (94,000), which together accounted for over 50 percent of all citizenships granted by the EU27 Member States.