Daily Mail: Latvia’s law on dual citizenship may cause mass migration of Siberians

  • 2012-09-11

RIGA - British newspaper Daily Mail writes that Latvia's law on dual citizenship may cause mass migration of Siberians to the European Union.

"More than 100,000 Russian citizens could qualify for EU passports under a little-noticed law change in a former Soviet country," newspaper writes.

"Latvia - which in recent years has seen a large exodus of its people to Britain and Germany, many taking low paid jobs - is to open its doors to 'an unknown number' of Siberians," warns the Daily Mail.

Everyone with Latvian passport is entitled to work and live in Great Britain and significant communities from the "ex-Soviet state" are now established in England, notes the newspaper.

There will be concerns in Great Britain - and Germany, which has also received tens of thousands of Latvian immigrants - that the move will add a strain to Europe's creaking welfare system.

Many of those qualifying "will be more ethnically Russian than Latvian," adds the newspaper.