According to the Migration Department, the number of foreigners living in Lithuania has surpassed 200,000 for the first time in the country’s history. At the beginning of this year, there were almost 190,000 foreigners living in Lithuania. By September 1, the number grew to a total of 203,157 persons from various foreign countries.
A slight slowdown in the immigration of foreign workers to Lithuania was observed early in the year, possibly due to talk of an impending recession, according to Evelina Gudzinskaitė, head of the Migration Department. Yet the pace of applications for residence permits picked up again in the spring, which is why the number of foreigners in Lithuania increased by 7,000 in July and August.
Almost 50 percent of all foreigners in Lithuania come to work in sectors unfilled by Lithuanians. The most common are long-distance freight and passenger carriers, construction and other industrial service workers. On September 1, a total of 97,925 foreigners held temporary residence permits in Lithuania for less skilled work. At that time, 6,258 foreigners worked in highly skilled jobs in Lithuania.
There was also an increase in the number of foreigners studying in Lithuania. As of September 1, temporary residence permits for education or studies in Lithuania were held by 5,385 foreign nationals. At the same time last year, there were 4,405.
Another 49,870 foreigners benefited from the EU’s Temporary Protection Mechanism, which is granted to Ukrainian refugees who flee their country due to Russian aggression. These are mainly Ukrainian nationals and their family members. As of September 1, 12,126 foreigners had temporary residence permits in Lithuania on the basis of family reunification.
Ukrainians continue to be the largest foreign community in Lithuania, with a total of 85,579. The majority of Ukrainian citizens came to Lithuania after Russia launched its large-scale invasion of their home country last year. According to available statistics, the number of Ukrainian citizens residing in Lithuania has recently stabilized.
The Belarusian community in Lithuania has grown the most during the year. At the beginning of the year, there were just over 48,000 Belarusian citizens living in the country, on September 1, there were already over 60,000.
The number of Russian citizens in Lithuania increased slightly. At the beginning of the year there were 15,706 Russians living in the country, and on September 1, there were 16,179. The majority of them – 8,571 – are permanent residents of Lithuania.
The fourth largest foreign group, Kyrgyz citizens has more than doubled this year in Lithuania – from 1,960 at the beginning of the year to 4,172 in September. The number of Uzbekistan citizens has also increased from 1,834 at the beginning of the year to 4,141 in September. They are now the fifth largest group of foreigners in Lithuania.
Other groups are less numerous. There are more than 3,000 Tajik and Indian citizens, more than 2,000 Azerbaijanis and Kazakhs, almost 2,000 Georgians, and about 1,500 Turks and Moldovans.
The number of workers from the European Union dropped by 11.3% in Lithuania in the first half of this year, and the number of workers from third countries is down by 2.4%, according to the Employment Service. About 127,300 foreigners are currently working in Lithuania, including 117,900 from third countries and 9,400 from the EU.
Half of third-country nationals work for transport and storage companies (66,100), while a smaller number of them work in the construction sector (19,200) and in manufacturing (11,500).
