Update: In 2016, more Romanian children were born in Diaspora than in Romania, minister says. Eurostat does not confirm

The role of youth in the communities of Romanians living abroad is very important, given that last year the children born in the Diaspora were more numerous than the ones born in Romania, the Minister for Romanians Everywhere, Andreea Păstîrnac, said on Tuesday.

“We have more than 4.4 million Romanian citizens registered as living in these communities last year, and for the first time, according to the Eurostat statistics, more children (Romanian citizens – our note) were born in the Diaspora than in Romania,” realitatea.net reports. “These figures raise very many questions about how the younger generation sees the right to mobility, the right to study in Europe and abroad, to work and where Romania is in this cycle, as the country of origin. Which is the exact balance between the normal desire to improvement and to the continuation of careers, both in Romania and in the other EU member states,” Păstîrnac said in a debate on policies regarding the youth and their greater involvement in the decision-making that concerns them.

Eurostat does not confirm

Eurostat has no data on the number of Romanian children born abroad in 2016, the RFI reports. Eurostat has responded to a question about the statements of the minister for the Romanians Abroad, Andreea Pastirnac, who said that, according to Eurostat statistics, more Romanian children were born abroad last year than the country, news.ro reports.

Eurostat was contacted in Luxembourg by RFI, has said that the newest data it holds in terms of birth rate are for 2015, not available yet for 2016.

In addition, the methodology for statistics provides information only on the number of foreign children born in a country and how many of them come from other European Union countries according to the mother’s origin, not by the nationality of each child.

Minister Andreea Pastirnac could not be contacted for a point of view.

Romanians lead the standings of obtaining another EU country’s citizenship

The Romanians are the ranking at the top of the Europeans who obtain the citizenship of another EU member state. For example, 6,400 Romanians achieved Italian citizenship in 2014 and another 6,200 became Hungarian citizens, according to the European Statistics Office Eurostat.

On the second place in this ranking were the Poles (6,000 got the German citizenship, and 3,200 got the British citizenship). The Italians complete the podium, followed by the Portuguese, Bulgarians and Croats, hotnews.ro informs.

Another Eurostat statistic shows that in 2010 Romania and Turkey were the main providers of immigrants to the EU, both of them with over 2 million citizens who left to the EU member states.