Citizenship status and social exclusion in Estonia and Latvia

Exploring Russian-Speaking Identity from Below: The Case of Latvia

“…Another visible result of Latvian discourses and narratives can be found in Latvia's much-discussed and controversial citizenship laws (Aasland 2002;Brubaker 1992;Chinn & Truex 1996), which initially conferred citizenship only on those people who could trace their ancestry to the pre-Soviet Latvia of 1940. This newly (re)constructed citizenry therefore represented Latvia's 'core nation', and was part of the drive to return Latvia to its 'normal' and 'European' self.…”

Wohnzufriedenheit und Mobilitätsverhalten zwischen der Jugend: Einsichten aus der Post-Sowietischen Stadt Riga

“…According to national statistics, the share of ethnic minorities even today constitutes more than half of city's population (CSB, 2017), thus competing with Latvians for better conditions in a free market oriented economy. The studies have confirmed that the members of the Russian-speaking minority in Latvia have adjusted worse to economic restructuring and suffered more from employment losses in different industrial sectors in which they were overrepresented (Aasland, 2002;Lindermann, 2013;Muiznieks et al, 2013). Nevertheless, today slightly more than 75 percent of the inhabitants of Riga live in Soviet-era mass housing areas or neighbourhoods dominated by this distinctive type of housing.…”

Russian in post-Soviet countries

“…The laws also required that employees of state institutions, organizations, and businesses that have contact with the general public must know and use the official language. These policies negatively affected the socioeconomic status of monolingual Russian speakers and their employment and educational opportunities (Aasland 2002).…”