Kahanovics said the program would encourage Latvia's 535,000 non-citizens to undertake naturalization procedures, which require applicants to have a certificate of basic proficiency in Latvian.
Non-citizens, who make up almost a quarter of the population, are mostly Russian speakers of Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian or Polish origin.
They cannot vote in national or local elections and are barred from holding jobs in state institutions.
Kahanovics expressed regret that the board will have to turn away people who sincerely want to learn Latvian and become citizens. "This is a very sensitive issue for us," he said. "Without a common language, there can be no integration."
In its first year the Latvian Language Intensive Teaching Program, a joint effort of the state's naturalization board and the Council of Europe's Office for Security and Cooperation in Europe, will receive funding of $216,000 - pledged by the U.S., Swedish, and Norwegian governments. The United States' and Sweden's contribution is $90,000 each, while Norway's is $36,000.
Previously, members of certain professions, such as teachers and medical staff, could enroll on state language training programs at no cost, but this is the first time courses will be open to the public free of charge.
Demand for courses is such that by the end of last year, when the program was under discussion, the naturalization board had already arranged placement tests for 1,100 applicants. These were the first to receive spots in the program and by Sept. 24 - three working days after the courses had originally been announced - the remaining places had almost all gone.
Although 2,000 places have been created, the number of individuals who will be taught is 1,600, because 400 who are starting from the lowest level will participate in both rounds of classes.
Students will be divided into groups of 12 people. In the first round of the classes the largest number will take place in Riga, but they will also be held in Daugavpils, Rezekne and Liepaja.
Participants will receive 80 hours of classroom time, an amount which Kahanovics estimated would cost between 60 lats ($97) and 80 lats in the private sector. Classes will be offered in two rounds, the first beginning in October, the second in January.
Tatyana Kirpo, 44, a bookkeeper who lives in Riga, is one of those enrolled. "I'm hopeful it will be an excellent program," she told The Baltic Times. "I'm taking the classes so that I'll understand what's said in every necessary context - eating, meeting with my friends, living in general."
Larisa Bihanova, manager at the travel agency Eiropa V in Riga, said she expected to be able to use the language in social and informal contexts, as well as at work and when it came to voting in elections. "I'm participating because I want to obtain citizenship," she said.
"I live in this country, and one should have citizenship in the country where one lives. I hope more people will be able to participate in future, that the program will continue, and everyone who wants to learn Latvian will be able to."
That, too, is the hope of the naturalization board. But the program's expansion, or even continuation after this year depends on continued funding, which has yet to be secured.
Kahanovics said he hoped the Latvian legislature would see the success of this year's program and allocate future funding through the Ministry of Justice or the department of integration.
But Nils Muiznieks, director of the non-governmental Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, warned that Latvia is far from becoming a fully integrated society. "Many people do not want citizenship," he said. "This is an aging, very passive, inert population that is alienated and accustomed to its status. I welcome these moves, but I don't think they're going to lead to a major shift."
Peter Semneby, head of the OSCE's Riga office, said he expected the majority of participants would be from the younger generation. "The benefits of being a citizen, which have to do with a general sense of belonging to society and participating in political life, and with the possibility of travel and work are probably more important to the younger generation," he said.
"Older people are already well advanced in their careers and more settled."
Kahanovics is optimistic about those who take the classes as the pass rate of those sitting citizenship tests is between 90 percent and 95 percent.
In order to deter people from abandoning courses before completing them they will be required to pay the 20 lat administrative fee payable by applicants for citizenship before hand. This will not be refunded if they do not complete the course.
When the naturalization program was introduced in February of 1995, there were 735,000 non-citizens in Riga. Since that time, 47,000 of these non-citizens have undergone naturalization, 66,000 have received Latvian citizenship through other means, 90,000 have become citizens of other countries (mainly Russia), 43,000 have emigrated to other countries, and 57,000 have died, according to naturalization board figures.
As Latvia prepares for European Union membership the program will be taken as a good sign by the existing member states, said Semneby.
"That would certainly be a positive byproduct of the increasing naturalization rate," he said.
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