Minorities still not working for state

Ethnic minorities are underrepresented in government and other state institutions, a new survey found, but poor Latvian skills, reluctance to naturalize and a feeling of alienation rather than widespread discrimination are cited as primary reasons.

Representation of ethnic minorities - mostly Russians but also including Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles and others - in local governments, ministries and other state agencies is nearly always less than their representation among the population, according to a study by Vidzemes University professor Artis Pabriks.

At the national level, ethnic Russians comprise 5.7 percent of employees in government ministries, the report found, though they make up nearly 18 percent of citizens.

At the end of 2001, roughly 1.8 million of Latvia's 2.3 million residents were citizens, according to the Citizenship and Migration Affairs Department.

Only the Interior Ministry has a ratio of minority employees (28.3 percent) that exceeds the percentage of minority citizens.

Among 22 city councils and administrations surveyed, Lat-vians also dominate. In eight cities, no minorities hold official positions.

District councils are similar. In the Daugavpils region, where ethnic minorities comprise some 40 percent of the citizenry, they comprise 31 percent of district employees. In the Riga region, where the percentage of minority citizens is about 12 percent, they make up 4 percent of employees.

"Too many minorities, when asked, still say 'it's not my state, they're not my institutions, and they probably don't want me anyway, so why try,'" Pabriks said.

Poor Latvian skills and the slow rate of naturalization are also major factors, said Pabriks, who is running for a seat in Parliament as a member of the center-right People's Party.

Just under 56,000 of Latvia's 514,298 non-citizens have naturalized since 1995, according to the Naturalization Board.

In large and medium-sized firms, minority representation tends to be proportional to representation among citizens, though self-segregation can be seen among smaller companies.

The trend toward the private sphere is not necessarily indicative of state discrimination since salaries tend to be higher than those in state structures, Pabriks said.

The report stops short of endorsing "affirmative action" style programs aimed at minorities, however, saying bitter memories of Soviet Russification policies and forced migration would fire ethnic tensions that do not currently exist.

"The state certainly should want to increase minority representation, even if the reason for the situation isn't always discrimination," Pabriks said. The report also recommends drafting regulations about how to recognize and avoid direct or indirect discrimination to foster a better understanding of discriminatory practices and their negative consequences.

But Aleksandr Gilman, an ethnic Russian deputy in Riga's City Council, said discrimination did exist and was the main reason for minorities' poor representation in state agencies.

"It is not written anywhere, but the understanding in Latvia is leaders must be Latvian," he said. "It's not written in the constitution, but it sits very deep in the heart of every Latvian in a position of power."

Language skills and citizenship, he said, are secondary explanations.

The study asserts that poor Latvian skills are the main obstacle to minority employment in the private sector. All 17 companies surveyed said knowledge of Latvian, not nationality, was the most important part of the hiring process.

The only way to ensure greater proficiency among more minorities is to revamp the state school system by increasing Latvian instruction, Pabriks said.

"If someone gets a good education with a strong knowledge of Latvian, then by the time he starts applying for jobs, employers won't even know his nationality, they'll simply see that he speaks excellent Latvian," he said.