Presenting the report on May 28, Eizenija Aldermane, head of the Latvian Naturalization Board, urged the government to grant the funding necessary to implement the National Program for the Integration of Society, which was adopted in February.
"There is a lot to do," she said. "We need the integration program to be coordinated at state level with funding from the state budget."
Aldermane also voiced irritation that the state "had not contributed a santim" toward the cost of the 130-page report, entitled "On the Way to a Civic Society."
The report was funded by the United Nations Development Program, the OSCE, the Soros Foundation and other organizations.
Despite the lack of central leadership, local efforts are creating a more integrated society, Aldermane said. "Some local authorities have developed their own integration policies. For example, Ventspils (in western Latvia) has set up a consultation board on issues of non-citizenship and has given the board a vote on the council. This type of program is happening in quite a lot of places."
Despite her optimism, critics can point to several alarming findings in the report, the second of its kind, produced by the Latvian Naturalization Board and the Baltic Institute of Social Sciences.
The proportion of non-citizens who feel Latvia is their homeland has remained at the 1997 level of 58 percent. For young people the figure is 57 percent. A relatively small number - around 32,000 - have naturalized in the same period.
The report also points to ongoing political tensions. Citizens and non-citizens have become more polarized in the political parties they favor since the last report. Tension over the state language has also increased. The number of non-citizens who support the introduction of Russian as an official second language has increased by 9 percent to 55 percent.
The report also points to alienation from the state, both among citizens and non-citizens. Since 1997 the number of people who support the idea of Latvia joining the Commonwealth of Independent States has increased. The report says 7 percent of citizens and 28 percent of non-citizens now favor joining.
Alienation was also demonstrated by the finding that 60 percent of citizens and 67 percent of non-citizens said they could not influence decisions at municipal level.
Nils Muiznieks, director of the Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies in Riga, acknowledged that the report contained some positive indicators, such as a decrease in the number of non-citizens who say the history and language exams naturalization applicants must pass are too tough. The number of those who value inter-ethnic relations has also increased.
But, said Muiznieks, the situation could be much better.
"This mixed bag of results could have been avoided if we had a well-funded, coordinated integration program with political backing at the highest level," he said.
Brigita Zepa, director of the Baltic Institute of Social Studies, also presented a survey on the attitudes of newly naturalized citizens at the conference. She said the delay in allowing non-citizens to naturalize after the restoration of independence represented a "social loss" to Latvia because, according to the survey, the newly naturalized are loyal to Latvia, highly educated and relatively prosperous.
Miroslavs Mitrofanovs, an MP in the For Human Rights in a United Latvia coalition, greeted such comments as evidence of changing attitudes in state institutions, even as he remains critical of state education policies.
"The conference paid attention to the value of minority languages and cultures," he said. "It was stressed that integration is a two-way process. The naturalization board did a good job."
Among the conference's contributors from abroad, Tadas Leoncikas, research assistant at the Institute of Political Science and Diplomacy in Kaunas, Lithuania, produced some surprising new findings on ethnic relations in Lithuania.
The results of a continent-wide "European Social Values" survey conducted in 1999 show that the tension between ethnic Poles and ethnic Lithuanians that hung over the early years of independence has largely disappeared, aside from remaining disputes over education.
Analysis of the results showed that more ethnic Poles (60 percent) said they would be willing to fight to defend Lithuania than ethnic Lithuanians (48.4 percent).
But while the state has succeeded in ensuring ethnic Poles' loyalty to the state, the Russian minority has become marginalized and fragmented, with Russians believing their status has declined.
"Success in integration has prevented policy changes and stifled debate," said Leoncikas.
Political parties are mainly mono-ethnic, and to a lesser extent work places are also mono-ethnic, a fact which is taboo in public discussion, he said.
The group most ignored by Lithuanian integration policies is the Roma, who number around 3,000 and have been "entirely marginalized," he said.
The problems of the Roma are now receiving more attention, due to increased interest in other parts of Europe and the work of organizations funded by the Soros Fund in Lithuania.
While Lithuanian Roma have not experienced the violence seen elsewhere in Europe, the "European Social Values" survey revealed considerable intolerance. Of the Lithuanians surveyed, around 60 percent said they would not want to have a Roma neighbor.
Please enter your username and password.
2024 © The Baltic Times /Cookies Policy Privacy Policy
