RIGA — Latvia’s sudden change in economic fortune over the past year after the “Baltic Tiger” boom is driving ethnic Russians without passports down a road they had previously eschewed — applying for Russian citizenship.
The Russian consulate of Daugavpils told the Latvian media Thursday that applications for Russian citizens from “stateless” residents of Latvia has increased 4.5 percent from last year to about 40 applications a month.
Daugavpils, Latvia’s second-largest city is located in Latgale, the southeast region of Latvia with a high proportion of ethnic Russians. The region is Latvia’s poorest, with Daugavpils largely left out of the investment that fueled the boom years.
While Russia has also been hit hard by the economic crisis, the Russian pension system guarantees a modest sum to those over age 55. Stateless residents are given only limited pension rights by the Latvian government, which has also slashed pension payments as part austerity measures forced by the crisis and Latvia’s international loan arrangement, and are citing this as a reason for their application.
Latvia has about 350,000 non-citizens, about 15 percent of the population. Most are ethnic Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians who moved to Latvia during the Soviet era but decided to stay when the communist giant broke up in 1991 and have been either unwilling or unable to meet the Baltic states stringent citizenship requirements.
4.5% increase increase is worth writing about? And, please enlighten as to what makes the requirements for citizenship “stringent.” They seem pretty straightforward and reasonable.
Dear Mr. Schmit,
Thank you for using Baltic Reports as a news source and for commentary.
We thought the increase was worth noting given the nature of the issue.
As for labeling the citizenship requirements “stringent,” that bears no reflection on whether the requirements are straightforward or reasonable, but merely notes that there are stricter requirements for obtaining citizenship than other countries.
To name one example, anyone born within the borders of the U.S. is automatically entitled to American citizenship, even if both of that person’s parents are not U.S. citizens.
However, in Latvia it depends on what date your birth was and if one of the parents is a Latvian citizen.
Regards,
Nathan Greenhalgh
Editor
Baltic Reports
Nathan,
If USA had been occupied by Mexico for 50 years would it still be as generous?
Dear H Lime,
Thank you for using Baltic Reports as a news source and for commentary.
That’s a good “what if” question. Given that imaginary scenario, who knows?
Regards,
Nathan Greenhalgh
Editor
Baltic Reports
If you somehow equate the word strict with the word different, then you would have a point. Not all countries automatically grant citizenship, that makes them different, not stricter.
And, nothing in the rest of your article supports the assertion in the first paragraph that the economic crisis is driving this. Correlation does not imply causality.
Above and beyond. You cite this big 4.5 % jump but only talk about two years of info. What happened a couple of years back, maybe it was an even larger number. Maybe this is actually a long term trend of RU pushing citizenship. I don’ t know, do you?
Dear Tom,
In the third and fourth paragraph reasons why the increase in Russian citizenship requests is being caused by the economic crisis — pensions and investment — are mentioned. Those assertions are the reflections of statements ethnic Russians living in the Daugavpils area gave to the media as well as the recent pension cuts and the economic history of that region of Latvia .
I fully understand the difference between strict and different. If you compare not automatically granting citizenship to automatically granting citizenship, one is undeniably stricter than the other. Let’s not parse words here.
As for the increase compared to the past few years, you made a good point. Unfortunately I can only give the information the Russian embassy was willing to disclose, and they were not willing to give further information. If it is a long-term trend of Russia pushing citizenship, which we have yet to see, rest assured we’ll certainly keep our eyes peeled for future developments.
Thanks again for using Baltic Reports as a news source and for posting your reactions to the latest Baltic news here.
Regards,
Nathan Greenhalgh
Editor
Baltic Reports
Not to be to facetious- but, you should reread those two paragraphs, they recite “facts,” they do not in any way say anything about LV/Rus saying these things. Again, correlation does not mean causation.
I am an American and have lived in LV for 8 yrs now. I feel that the rules regarding citizenship should be different, but it is not parsing words to saying that the rules are simply different. If your point of comparison is, for example, Germany, the rules do appear simply different, not strict.
Dear Tom,
Like I said in the previous post, the assertions in those paragraphs are not from either governments but from non-citizens in Latvia that applied for Russian citizenship. Certainly the causes they cite for their decision to apply for Russian citizenship are worth noting.
About these citizenship requirement differences you mention — Latvia’s policies are stricter than Germany’s. A child born to a parent that has had a German permanent residency card for at least 3 years or has been residing in Germany for 8 years with a visa is entitled to citizenship. Neither of the parents need be German citizens in either case.
In Latvia one of the parents must be a Latvian citizen or the child is not eligible for citizenship, the only exception being if a parentless child is found in a Latvian orphanage or boarding school and then it’s only on a case-by-case basis.
Regards,
Nathan Greenhalgh
Editor
Baltic Reports
I am not suprised there is a rise in people applying for russian citizenship, when nations fail, people look for greener horizons.
I would say that it is probably alot less people applying for russian citizenship and leaving, than Latvian passport holders who are moving away to work abroad.
Are there any official figures for Latvians leaving in 2009? If i think of my friends atleast 50% have gone. This is set to grow im sure.
I have put together similar numbers for Estonia. What we do here is that you take the number of Russian citizens holding resident (either temporary or permanent) permits. In that way you can look at longer time frame and you get the numbers from official statistics. This of course is a proxy and will not probably cover all of the people, but at least gives you the general idea of the main trends.