Citizenship Laws Explained
Originally posted at Nouvelleurope, where an interesting debate was taking place back in 2006. Why not post it here as well with some links and corrections:
The citizenship laws of Latvia often are confusing for outsiders. Two German researchers sent me an e-mail recently asking an important question in Latvian politics today: what is the difference between a Russian and a Latvian; a citizen and a non-citizen in Latvia.
To begin understanding the internal situation in Latvia, let’s look briefly at the historical context. In August 1940, Latvia was annexed into the Soviet Union. Following the German occupation in 1941 to 1944, Latvia was once again occupied by Soviet forces until 1990. In May 1990, Latvian government declared its independence from the Soviet Union. In 1991, Latvian residents went to the polls to express their opinion regarding Latvia as an independent democratic country. The overwhelming majority of the residents voted in favor of the independence. Later that same year, Latvia’s Supreme Soviet, a legislative body at the time, adopted a law restoring the citizenship of those who were citizens of Latvia before the Soviet occupation of 1940.
In 1994, the law on citizenship was adopted by the government. Under the law, those whose ancestors lived in Latvia at the time of it occupation in 1940 qualified for the automatic Latvian citizenship. The new independent republic, the government said, was the extension of the republic that lost its independence in 1940, therefore any residents who were not citizens of the country at the time of the annexation did not qualify for the new citizenship.
Instead, they were given a status of a non-citizen. The law about non-citizens was adopted in 1995.
It is not fair to distinguish between Russians and Latvians and non-citizens and citizens as equal division in Latvia. Majority of non-citizens were Soviet engineers, bureaucrats, laborers and others who relocated to Latvia to boost its industry in the plan economy. They were not necessarily ethnic Russians. In the Soviet Union, specialists from other Soviet republics were transferred or relocated to Latvia. In 1994, they and their children who were left without citizenship.
One often wondered why Latvia needed a textile factory, for example, if Latvia’s climate was not suitable for cotton.
In the Soviet economy, new labor force was eventually to become a majority. It would mean than ethnic Latvians would outnumber ethnic non-Latvians, if the trend continued.
Non-citizens are not eligible to vote in any elections on the national or a local level. They’re not eligible to travel in the EU as freely as the Latvian citizens. Nor can they own some kinds of property.
Latvian non-citizens feel betrayed by the government. Some say, back in 1991, the ruling national party promised citizenship to all residents regardless of their nationality or the date of arrival. Those people push for easing up of the citizenship laws to grant citizenship to some non-citizens, as it is theirs by right, so they say.
Eventually, the Latvian government allowed non-citizens to naturalize. Through naturalization process, non-citizens may obtain the same rights as citizens.
March 8th, 2006 at 10.21
Rulling seems to be unfair toward non citizens born in Latvia for whom no other land is “homeâ€. I can to some degree understand that Russians who moved to Latvia are to be non citizens. That is ok with me.
Also Rusian non citizens, born in Latvia often don’t speek latvian language and speaking latvian is required to gain citizen status. Perhaps it is OK to require from them to learn, now.
The problem is – as I understand it – that some non citizens would like to take Latvian citizenship and remain sort of loyal to another country (RUSIA)and maybe hold on onto their versin of history. If I was the king of Latvia I’d make the test to all supspects proving whether they love Latvia more then Russia and woldn’t bother with languages.
March 10th, 2006 at 14.03
Thanks for an attempt to explain the citizenship law in Latvia!
It is also worth mentioning, that in contrast to Latvia and Estonia, the citizenship law in Lithuania granted the citizenship to virtualy everyone who resided in Lithuania in 1991. At least that’s what I heard.
All three baltic states have similar soviet era history, but the citizenship law turned out to be so different in the case of Lithuania.
Any comments/reasons?
March 10th, 2006 at 15.23
Richard:
It has to do with the influx of people from outside of the countries and the number of Russian-speaking population at the time when the laws were adopted.
I could be wrong and I’m sure I’ll be corrected if I am.
March 10th, 2006 at 17.09
Aleks:
The influx of people from outside and the number of Russian-speaking should not be reasons of this difference. According to my data, these quantities are similar in Estonia and Lithuania.
P.S. Does anyone have the official data on Russian-speaking population in the Baltic states in 1991?
March 10th, 2006 at 18.11
i only found data for the year 2000, but lithuania has a much smaller percentage of russians then the other two
Estonia:
Estonian 67.9%, Russian 25.6%, Ukrainian 2.1%, Belarusian 1.3%, Finn 0.9%, other 2.2% (2000 census)
Latvia
Latvian 57.7%, Russian 29.6%, Belarusian 4.1%, Ukrainian 2.7%, Polish 2.5%, Lithuanian 1.4%, other 2% (2002)
Lithuania
Lithuanian 83.4%, Polish 6.7%, Russian 6.3%, other or unspecified 3.6% (2001 census)
Sources:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/en.html#People
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/lh.html#People
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/lg.html#People
March 10th, 2006 at 18.11
Richard – re your query about the Russian-speaking population in the Baltic states in 1991. I would think the answer is 100%. They had to speak Russian! However, I assume you mean the percentage of ethnic-Russians as compared with ethnic-Latvians – if so please see http://countrystudies.us/latvia/9.htm
and
http://countrystudies.us/latvia/10.htm
and yes, Rokac – there are many people living in Latvia whose loyalty lies elsewhere!
March 10th, 2006 at 18.18
Richard-
I actually believe that Aleks is correct. The number of non-ethnic Lithuanians was (is) much lower than in Latvia and Estonia.
“In 1994, according to official estimates, 81.1 percent of Lithuania’s population consisted of ethnic Lithuanians. The remaining 18.9 percent was divided among Russians (8.5 percent), Poles (7.0 percent), Belarusians (1.5 percent), Ukrainians (1.0 percent), and others, including Jews, Latvians, Tatars, Gypsies, Germans, and Estonians (0.9 percent).†http://www.photius.com/countries/lithuania/society/lithuania_society_population.html
March 10th, 2006 at 21.04
It’s 2006, anybody have any idea when new censuses are coming out? Those “new†figures are already a few years old.
March 10th, 2006 at 21.23
What’s really strange is the way demographics have shifted in Estonia (and Latvia too). In 1989, Estonians made up 61.5 percent of the total population. According to the Regional Database, in 2004 they made up 68.4 percent.
Using the database just now I found the following ratios for Estonians and Russians in Estonia from 2000 – 2004.
2000 (68.2 EST/25.84 RUS)
2001(68.26 EST/25.81 RUS)
2002(68.32 EST/25.78 RUS)
2003(68.38 EST/25.75 RUS)
2004(68.43 EST/25.73 RUS)
What is causing that? Is it lower birthrate among ethnic Russians or more widescale emigration?
I believe the number of ethnic Latvians has grown as well over the past 15 years.
March 11th, 2006 at 18.03
Giustino,
it’s the same trend in Latvia, except it’s larger:
1989: 52.0% LAT, 34.0% RUS
2000: 57.7% LAT, 29.6% RUS
2004: 58.6% LAT, 28.8% RUS
According to Latvian statistics office, about a quarter of the change is due to difference in birthrates. The rest must be emigration.