According to information from “Serbian Economist”, as of July 31, 2026, nearly 100,000 foreign citizens were legally residing in Montenegro, with Ukrainians remaining one of the country’s largest foreign communities, according to data from the Montenegrin Ministry of the Interior and previously published detailed statistics from the ministry.
According to data from the Montenegrin Ministry of Internal Affairs, 67,344 foreigners hold temporary residence permits, while another 29,783 hold permanent residence permits. Thus, the total number of foreigners with regulated status exceeds 97,000. Of those with temporary residence permits, 40,907 hold permits for temporary residence and work.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs identifies citizens of Serbia, the Russian Federation, and Turkey as the three largest groups of foreign residents. The ministry did not provide a complete breakdown by citizenship as of July 31, 2026, in its published response; therefore, it is currently impossible to determine Ukraine’s exact current ranking based on this data.
However, the latest available comprehensive table from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which allows for a comparison of the main national groups, shows that as of October 31, 2023, Ukrainian citizens ranked fifth among foreigners with temporary or permanent residence in Montenegro.
At that time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ records listed:
Russia — 27,032 people;
Serbia—22,661;
Turkey—9,467;
Bosnia and Herzegovina—7,733;
Ukraine—5,208;
Kosovo—3,821;
Albania—3,027;
Belarus—1,288.
At the same time, the size of the Ukrainian community has been growing since 2023. An article in the Montenegrin publication Dan, cited by Niksic Radio and Television in March 2026, reported that in December there were over 9,000 Ukrainian citizens in the country with residence permits. By comparison, the number of Turkish citizens was approximately 13,000.
Ukrainians residing in Montenegro under temporary protection should be considered separately. This status is legally distinct from a standard temporary residence permit; therefore, data on individuals granted temporary protection and those with standard residence permits cannot be mechanically combined when compiling a ranking of foreign residents.
In March 2026, the Montenegrin government extended temporary protection for individuals from Ukraine until March 4, 2027.
The scale of the Ukrainian presence is also clearly evident in migration statistics. From January through early August 2025 alone, 69,826 Ukrainian citizens entered Montenegro, while 67,561 departed.
Thus, based on the available data, it can be confidently stated that Ukrainians are among the largest foreign communities in Montenegro.
The growth in the number of foreign residents is of significant economic importance to Montenegro.
With a population of approximately 624,000, the nearly 97,100 foreigners with legal residency account for about 15–16% of the country’s population. Foreign residents are particularly noticeable along the coast and in Podgorica, and they influence the real estate market, the rental market, services, employment, and consumer demand.
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Net migration to Germany fell to 235,000 people in 2025, compared with 663,000 in 2023, according to a study by the German Economic Institute (IW) published on July 28, 2026. Excluding the pandemic period, this is the lowest figure since 2010. Experts at the Experts Club Information and Analytical Center attribute the decline to several factors: a decrease in the number of refugees, the departure of workers from Central and Eastern European countries, a decline in migration from the Western Balkans, and an increase in emigration by German citizens themselves.
The largest net inflow from a single country in 2025 came from Ukrainian citizens, amounting to 89,000 people. A year earlier, the figure was 116,000. Ukrainians have a special status because they are admitted to Germany mainly under the EU’s temporary protection mechanism rather than through the standard asylum procedure. Further developments will depend primarily on the course of the war and the conditions of Ukrainians’ stay in Germany.
By the end of 2025, approximately 1.41 million Ukrainian citizens were listed in Germany’s Central Register of Foreigners. They became the second-largest foreign group after Turkish citizens.
The number of initial asylum applications fell from 329,000 in 2023 to 113,000 in 2025.
The inflow from Syria declined particularly sharply: the number of initial applications fell from 103,000 to 23,000. Over the same period, the number of applicants from Afghanistan decreased from 51,000 to 24,000, while the number from Turkey fell from 61,000 to 12,000.
At the end of 2025, the largest groups of people registered in Germany as being in need of protection remained citizens of Ukraine, at approximately 1.164 million; Syria, at 669,000; and Afghanistan, at 321,000.
IW links the decline in Syrian migration primarily to the change in the situation in Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in 2024, as well as to the tightening of German and EU migration policies.
Another important change was the reversal of migration from the new EU member states.
In 2023, Germany recorded a net inflow of approximately 42,000 citizens from these countries. In 2024, 35,000 more people left Germany than arrived, while in 2025 the net outflow reached 45,000 people.
This group includes, in particular, citizens of Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Croatia, and other countries that joined the EU from 2004 onward. Economists explain migrants’ return by the narrowing gap in wages and living standards, growing demand for workers in their own countries, and the overall ageing of the population of Central and Eastern Europe.
At the end of 2025, approximately 904,000 Romanian citizens and 840,000 Polish citizens were registered in Germany. Over the year, the number of Polish citizens declined by approximately 25,000, while the total number of EU citizens fell by 75,000.
In recent years, citizens of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia have been actively recruited into the German labour market, including under special rules for the Western Balkans. However, their net migration has been steadily declining since 2022. In 2025, it amounted to approximately 39,000 people. IW warns that the potential for further recruitment of workers from the Balkans is also limited: the populations of most countries in the region are shrinking, while their own labour markets are facing staff shortages.
Against the backdrop of the overall decline, there are also opposing trends. Net migration of Vietnamese citizens increased from 10,000 people in 2023 to 19,000 in 2025.
At the same time, the number of residence permits issued to citizens of non-European countries for employment purposes increased by 33,000, or 13.6%, between 2023 and 2025. The number of permits related to education also rose by 33,000, or 15.3%. Thus, the inflow of students and skilled workers is currently declining significantly more slowly than humanitarian and intra-European migration.
The net outflow of German citizens increased from 74,000 people in 2023 to 97,000 in 2025. IW notes that negative migration among German citizens occurs regularly. However, growth of approximately 30% over two years may be an alarming signal, especially if qualified specialists are leaving the country.
At the same time, part of the statistics may relate to previously naturalised migrants who return to their countries of origin after obtaining German citizenship. It is difficult to assess the structure of this outflow precisely because the final destination country is not recorded for many of those leaving.
According to the Central Register of Foreigners, approximately 14.07 million foreign nationals were living in Germany at the end of 2025.
The largest groups were:
Approximately 5 million foreigners, or 35%, were citizens of EU member states. Another 4.6 million held the citizenship of other European countries, while approximately 4.5 million represented countries in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and other regions.
If not only foreign citizens but also migrants who obtained German citizenship and their direct descendants are taken into account, Germany had approximately 21.8 million people with an immigration history in 2025, representing 26.3% of the population. The largest groups by country of birth were people from Poland and Turkey, at approximately 1.5 million each; Ukraine, at 1.3 million; and Russia and Syria, at approximately 1 million each.
The decline in migration is occurring simultaneously with the mass retirement of the baby-boomer generation. According to a separate IW forecast, by 2036 the gap between older workers leaving the labour market and young people reaching working age could reach 4.3 million people. Economists consider a return to a mass inflow of workers from Eastern Europe unlikely. Germany will have to recruit specialists and workers with medium and lower levels of formal qualifications more actively from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other regions.
IW proposes accelerating visa procedures, reducing the tax and social burden on workers, and extending simplified labour migration mechanisms similar to the existing rules for the Western Balkans to new countries. Thus, this is not about the complete cessation of migration but about a change in its structure. Germany is receiving fewer refugees and workers from neighbouring European countries, while the economy’s need for foreign labour continues to grow because of the ageing population.
The European Commission is preparing the largest change since 2022 to the temporary protection regime for Ukrainian citizens: newly arriving Ukrainians who are subject to military obligations and do not have permission from the Ukrainian authorities to leave the country will, as a rule, be unable to receive temporary protection in the EU, the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita writes.
According to the Experts Club information and analytical centre, Ukrainian citizens will need special confirmation from Ukrainian authorities stating that they are not subject to mobilization in order to enter Poland and other EU countries and subsequently receive temporary protection. Rzeczpospolita clarifies that this requirement may apply not only to men but also to women if they are subject to the relevant Ukrainian military obligations.
The European Commission’s official proposal already confirms the general principle of such changes. On June 26, 2026, the Commission proposed extending temporary protection for people who fled Ukraine for another year, until March 4, 2028, but at the same time stated that temporary protection should generally not be granted to newly arriving persons whom the Ukrainian authorities have not allowed to leave because of military obligations.
The draft decision of the European Commission states that the extension of temporary protection should not undermine Ukraine’s ability to defend itself and that EU member states should take into account Ukraine’s military needs and its legally established conscription obligations. Verification of such requirements should apply only to new arrivals after the decision enters into force, while Ukrainians who have already received temporary protection in the EU should retain this status and the rights associated with it.
Polish Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Duszczyk told Rzeczpospolita that the new restrictions would probably begin to apply as early as July, but would concern not those who already have temporary protection in EU countries, but those who are only seeking to obtain it. He also noted that Poland supports such changes.
According to Rzeczpospolita, Ukraine itself initiated the tightening of the approach, having asked EU countries in early June to restrict the admission of some Ukrainian citizens under the special conditions of temporary protection. The Polish publication links this to Kyiv’s attempts to strengthen mobilization and reduce the outflow of people who may be needed by the Ukrainian army.
Reuters previously reported that the European Commission’s proposal means that newly arriving Ukrainian men of conscription age without permission from the Ukrainian authorities to leave the country will not be able to qualify for temporary protection. According to European Commissioner for Migration Magnus Brunner, the aim of the changes is to balance the need to protect people with Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.
This issue is of particular importance in Poland, as the country remains one of the main reception centres for Ukrainians in the EU. According to Eurostat, as of May 31, 2026, 4.38 million people who had fled Ukraine were under temporary protection in the EU. The largest numbers were in Germany, with 1.283 million, Poland, with 967,505, and Spain, with 267,400.
Rzeczpospolita, citing the Polish Ministry of Digital Affairs, writes that as of June 15 there were more than 218,000 Ukrainian men aged 18–65 with UKR status in Poland. Across the EU, adult men account for 26.8% of temporary protection beneficiaries from Ukraine, or more than 1.17 million people, based on Eurostat’s May estimate.
Poland’s Office for Foreigners previously reported that almost 1 million Ukrainian citizens in the country benefit from temporary protection, while approximately 1.55 million Ukrainians in total have valid grounds for staying in Poland. This estimate includes around 993,000 people with PESEL UKR, 462,000 Ukrainian citizens with temporary residence permits, and 92,000 with permanent residence or EU long-term resident status. These figures do not include Ukrainians staying in Poland under the visa-free regime or on visas.
Rzeczpospolita also writes that the Polish Interior Ministry is finalizing work on amendments to the citizenship law. Among the measures being discussed are increasing the minimum residence period for naturalization to eight years, introducing a language and integration test, and requiring a so-called confirmation of loyalty. According to the publication, this reform will affect Ukrainian citizens to the greatest extent, since for many years they have remained the largest group of foreigners applying for Polish citizenship.
Thus, this is not about ending protection for Ukrainians who are already in the EU, but most likely about introducing new screening of future arrivals. The European Union is effectively trying to combine humanitarian protection for refugees with Ukraine’s military needs, while Poland, which is home to one of the largest Ukrainian communities in Europe, is becoming one of the key participants in this debate.
Ukrainians in the Republic of Moldova will be able to obtain Ukrainian citizenship through a simplified procedure: The Cabinet of Ministers has included this country on the list of states whose citizens are eligible for this mechanism, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced.
“I discussed this decision with Moldovan Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu. This is a natural step for our countries. We are united by a shared border, a shared path toward the European Union, and mutual support in the face of Russian aggression. There is a large Ukrainian community living in Moldova, and we want people to have easier access to Ukrainian citizenship,” she wrote on Telegram.
The prime minister noted that the next step will be to make this procedure as convenient as possible.
“Currently, to obtain citizenship, one must pass exams on the Ukrainian language, the Constitution, and the history of Ukraine, but this can only be done in Ukraine. We are working on the possibility of taking these exams remotely. We also need to streamline the final stage of processing documents through diplomatic missions abroad so that people can obtain a Ukrainian passport without unnecessary obstacles,” Svyrydenko emphasized.
In addition, the parties separately discussed the development of joint transportation infrastructure, in particular the construction of a new bridge between Ukraine and Moldova.
Ukrainian citizens ranked second among the largest groups of foreign residents in Germany as of the end of 2025, trailing only Turkish citizens.
According to data from the German Federal Statistical Office, 1.409 million Ukrainian citizens were living in the country as of the end of 2025. This is an increase from the previous year, when the figure stood at 1.334 million.
Turkish citizens remain the largest foreign group in Germany, numbering 1.520 million people. They are followed by Ukrainians, then Syrian citizens (936,3 thousand), Romanian citizens (903,8 thousand), and Polish citizens (839,7 thousand).
Thus, Ukrainians have become the second-largest foreign community in Germany. This is a direct consequence of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine and the mass displacement of Ukrainians to EU countries after 2022.
At the same time, the overall demographic situation in Germany has deteriorated. According to Destatis, the country’s population in 2025 declined for the first time since 2020—to 83.5 million people. Net immigration of 235,000 people was no longer sufficient to offset natural population decline: the number of deaths exceeded the number of births by 352,000.
For Germany, Ukrainian migration remains an important demographic and labor factor. Against the backdrop of an aging population and a labor shortage, Ukrainians have already become one of the key groups of foreigners in the country, and their integration into the labor market, education system, and social welfare system will have long-term significance for the German economy.
Starting in late 2026, citizens of Ukraine and other countries with visa-free travel will be required to obtain an ETIAS electronic travel authorization for short-term trips to most European countries, according to the official EU website Travel Europe.
ETIAS is not a visa and does not abolish the visa-free regime for Ukrainians. It is an electronic travel authorization that will be required prior to entry into Schengen Area countries, as well as certain European states participating in the system. The authorization will be processed online via the official EU website.
The application fee will be 20 euros. Applicants under 18 and over 70 are exempt from the fee. There are also specific exemptions for family members of EU citizens and a number of other categories, provided they meet the established conditions.
The ETIAS authorization will be valid for up to three years or until the passport expires, whichever comes first. It will allow for short-term trips of up to 90 days within any 180-day period.
The system will apply to citizens of countries that currently travel to Europe without a visa, including Ukraine. Before traveling, travelers will need to fill out an online form with passport and personal information, as well as answer security-related questions. In most cases, a decision should be made quickly; however, the EU recommends applying for the authorization in advance, before purchasing tickets or booking a trip.
The EU specifically warns that applications should only be submitted through the official website europa.eu/etias, as there are already intermediary websites that may charge additional fees or collect personal data. The EU Delegation to Ukraine has also previously highlighted the risk of fraudulent websites posing as the official ETIAS portal.
