Migration has become an increasingly serious issue in Western Europe, and sooner or later Latvia will also have to face it head-on. What should be done—welcome all third-country nationals who wish to come with open arms, or strictly control all matters related to their arrival and presence? How should Latvia deal with growing immigration pressures? These questions were put by BNN to political analyst and co-owner of the company Mediju tilts, Filips Rajevskis.
One of the main arguments in favor of migration is that migrants often take on low-skilled jobs that many Europeans are unwilling to do. However, Rajevskis stresses that migration of low-skilled labor is a largely short-sighted and even risky path from the perspective of national security.
“We see what this has turned into in Western Europe—in the United Kingdom, France, Germany—and I don’t think we need that here either. Latvia has unemployment, there are people who are not fully employed; perhaps something needs to change in employment policy, but I do not believe we should be encouraging migration from third countries,” he says.
The political analyst reminds that in many European countries people no longer feel safe and secure in public spaces, which in turn can trigger migration of Europeans themselves.
“We have something to offer Europeans who want to escape concerns about their children’s safety
and unsafe environments overcrowded with third-country nationals. Latvia could have its own role and its own place where we could attract such people to our country. These are mostly highly qualified individuals from a similar cultural space, with comparable values and traditions, who would be fully acceptable from an economic, social, and cultural standpoint. A very similar situation exists with Israeli citizens, given the war and outward migration.
These people could also be attracted—they are educated, culturally close to us, and entirely acceptable to Latvian society. We could coexist peacefully, and it would also bring economic benefits to Latvia,” Rajevskis says, adding that low-skilled workers arriving from third countries are unlikely to lead Latvia toward prosperity or development.
“They will bring only tension—both internal political tension and pressure on the budget, because sooner or later these people will start demanding social benefits and healthcare, especially after their health has been damaged by low-quality work. Eventually, they will want to naturalize here and introduce their own cultural norms in Latvia.
They will form closed communities, and we do not have a particularly strong capacity to deal with that.
I see no reason why we would be any different from the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, or Sweden, which have already found themselves in fundamental trouble after allowing the formation of such closed third-country communities that are now beginning to dictate their own political agendas.”
In response to BNN’s remark that Latvia allegedly has no choice but to accept third-country migrants or face heavy fines, Rajevskis argues that migration is a matter of Latvia’s sovereign rights. “If our leading politicians start claiming that someone can force this upon us, then it means they have not done their job. We know very well that neither Estonia nor Poland is being forced into this. Let’s be realistic—Latvia is under constant pressure from migration being used as a weapon, and there is a permanent state of emergency at the border. We are not obliged to accept third-country nationals, and no one has the right to impose them on us,” he says.
As for Latvia’s own political party Progressives, which is generally supportive of migration, Rajevskis emphasizes: “What matters here is not what Progressives say, but what the majority of society thinks. Moreover, there is an absolute consensus across all communities in Latvia—this is not a problem we need to add to our list.”
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