The status of non-citizens in Latvia and its coexistence with EU norms Társadalomtudományi

35 OTDK, Társadalomtudományi Szekció, Nemzetközi tanulmányok 2. Tagozat.

The status of non-citizens in Latvia and its coexistence with EU norms

Hallgató: Beschastnova, Daria Aleksandrovna
Szak: International Relations, Képzés típusa: ba, Intézmény: Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, Kar: Társadalomtudományi Kar

Témavazető: Nagy Alíz - egyetemi adjunktus, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Társadalomtudományi Kar

The dissolution of the Soviet Union gave rise to a number of questions concerning citizenship policies in former Soviet Republics, and the literature on the matter finds the case of independent Latvia particularly interesting. The individuals residing there, but not native Latvians, were not granted Latvian citizenship automatically, they were proclaimed Latvian ‘non-citizens' - a special term used in the Latvian citizenship law to refer to individuals without Latvian or any other citizenship rather than former Soviet. Roughly 30% of Latvian population in the 1990s held the status of non-citizens, and although, according to the latest data of 2020, this rate has decreased to 10%, the category of non-citizens is still present in Latvian citizenship policies.
The status of a non-citizen is often viewed as discriminatory towards the Russian-speaking minority in Latvia by international organizations and scholars. It has been highlighted that non-citizens have limited political and social rights, and the question of whether EU can accept those policies has been present since Latvia decided to join the EU. The public opinion regarding this topic usually tends towards the abolishment of the status by granting the citizenship to all current non-citizens automatically, but such a solution was never proposed by the Union.
It is puzzling how these policies can pass muster in a member country of the European Union. The paper discusses why the status of non-citizens is still present, how it is different from the status of stateless persons, and demonstrates that there is no specific need to abolish the status from the perspective of EU. I argue that despite of there seem to be contradictions between the law and EU norms, in fact they are made compatible by the lack of criticism coming from the EU’s side, combined with its overall stance on the issue.