Politics of Latvia - Citizenship and Language Issues

Citizenship and Language Issues

The current edition of the citizenship law was adopted in 1998 after much debate and pressure from Russia and European Union, amending a more restrictive law, initially passed in 1994. In accordance with law, Latvian citizens are those who had Latvian citizenship prior to June 17, 1940, and their descendants. Those who settled in Latvia during Soviet occupation, with exception of those who did so subsequent to retirement from Soviet Army, or were employees, informers, agents or safehouse keepers of the KGB, or of the security services, intelligence services or other special services of some other foreign state, can obtain Latvian citizenship via naturalization. Other categories of persons not eligible for naturalization include convicted criminals, state officials and servicemen of armed forces of a foreign state, members of Communist Party as well as members of certain affiliate organizations, who, after 13 January 1991, have acted against the Latvian State. Naturalization criteria include a conversational knowledge of Latvian, an oath of loyalty, renunciation of former citizenship, a 5-year residency requirement, and a knowledge of the Latvian constitution. As of November 2005, about 109,000 persons have applied for naturalization and about 103,000 of them have been granted Latvian citizenship.

In 2006 approximately 18 per cent of the total population (420,000 inhabitants of Latvia, slightly less than half of ethnically non-Latvian population) had no Latvian citizenship. Most of them have Latvian non-Citizen Passports, which give them a status similar to permanent residency in other countries. They can reside in Latvia indefinitely and obtain most of public services (e.g., education and healthcare) according to the same conditions as the citizens of Latvia. Non-citizens of Latvia cannot vote during municipal and state elections and are not allowed to work in government, the police and civil services. Several foreign nations also treat citizens and non-citizens of Latvia differently, admitting citizens of Latvia without visa but requiring visas from non-citizens. Russia used to have an opposite practice, requiring visas from both citizens and non-citizens of Latvia, but allowing non-citizens to travel to Russia with a cheaper visa.

As a transitional clause, the Latvian law allows dual citizenship for those who were forced to leave Latvia during the Soviet or Nazi occupation and adopted another citizenship while away from Latvia. In order to be eligible for dual citizenship, they had to claim it by July 1, 1995. After that date the other citizenship must be renounced upon the acceptance of the Latvian citizenship.

Latvian is the sole state language in Latvia; while the threatened Livonian language also has official status. All other languages are considered foreign by the law on state languages. The Latgalian written language is also protected as a historic variant of the Latvian language. Two parliamentary parties, Harmony Centre and ForHRUL, have requested that Russian (37.5% of inhabitants, according to the 2000 census, are Russians) be given official status.

Since 1999, the education laws have forbidden the public universities to instruct students in languages other than Latvian (there are exclusions made for linguistics, some international projects and non-budget groups). The law included a provision allowing for instruction in Latvian only in public high schools since 2004. Following large-scale protests in 2003—2004, the law was amended, requiring instruction in Latvian within at least 60% of the curriculum.