The amendment of the Immigration Law in Latvia is a signal for the Russians to be more concerned about overthrowing Putin at their own home than about finding a better home in Europe.
Latvia has stopped issuing residence permits to Russian and Belarusian citizens and has started cancelling those already issued. This is the message of the country, confirmed by the votes of 80 members of the Saeima and the signature of the President. This is followed by the disclaimer that not only are there no plans for mass expulsions of Russian and Belarusian citizens, but also that the exceptions for issuing new residence permits are being left in place. The restrictions on the issuance of residence permits to Russian and Belarusian citizens introduced on April 9 will remain in force until June 30, 2023. No MPs voted against these amendments to the Immigration Law in the Saeima on April 7, and none abstained, while nine of the MPs present at the sitting took the opportunity to absent themselves from the vote.
Russia's attack on Ukraine has not only brought some 18,000 war refugees from Ukraine to Latvia, but has also increased the flow of people to Latvia from Russia and Belarus, which is helping Russia in its war against Ukraine. Although very weak so far, real protests against the war in these countries have indeed been noticed and people are being punished for them. In some cases, it is plausible that the increased repression in Russia as a result of the war is threatening people who have criticized the Russian regime before the war or now, but not literally in connection with the war. The Latvian authorities have believed about 200 such people and allowed them to settle in Latvia after the Russian attack on February 24. Latvia has also begun to look like a safer place than Russia for the members of families scattered in several countries who would now like to reunite in Latvia. The old entry procedure has allowed some 300 more people to enter Latvia in this way. The new procedure will narrow these possibilities considerably - at least that is the aim of the new procedure. "Everyone must take into account that in times of war it will not be possible to maintain one's usual level of comfort in general and one's choice of place of residence in particular." Juris Rancāns (New Conservative Party, Jaunā konservatīvā partija), chairman of the Saeima Defense, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee, which drafted the amendments to the Immigration Law, told Neatkarīgā. "Russia's aggression in Ukraine would not have been possible without the participation of Russian society, and Russian citizens must be aware of this." Mārtiņš Šteins (Development/For!, Attīstībai/Par!), Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior, who spoke at the plenary session of the Saeima on the amendments to the Immigration Law, explained Latvia's position.
Residence permits in Latvia are issued by the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA). Twice a year, it reports in detail on the distribution of temporary and permanent residence permits (TRP and PRP respectively) to citizens of more than 100 countries allowed to stay in Latvia. The latest publication of the OCMA covers July 1, 2021. At that time, 44,361 TRPs for people from a total of 140 countries and 53,133 PRPs for people from 107 countries were valid in Latvia. It is Russia that has delegated the majority of foreigners admitted to Latvia. In the middle of last year, 9,795 TRPs and 41,300 PRPs were in force for Russian citizens. Data for several reference periods since the beginning of Covid show that the number of TRPs issued to Russian citizens has very slowly decreased, while the number of PRPs has remained practically unchanged.
The wartime situation raises the question of why so many Russian citizens - citizens of another country, not people who lost all citizenship as a result of the collapse of the USSR and their descendants - are living in Latvia. Let these people first ask themselves that question and perhaps move to the country whose citizenship they consider most appropriate. Asking and answering such questions now becomes very dependent on the course and outcome of the war in Ukraine.
Russian citizens use a PRP simply because they got one in the past or inherited one from their parents, but obtaining a TRP requires a more meaningful justification.
In the middle of last year, the majority of Latvian TRP users were people who bought real estate in Latvia (4,432), plus another 119 who invested their money not in property but in Latvian state or bank securities. The OCMA did not track how many people had obtained a residence permit in Latvia in order to be allowed to live anywhere else in the Schengen area. Now we see such people returning to their properties in Latvia to reduce the pretexts for revoking their right to be here and thus in the Schengen area in general. With Russia's attack on Ukraine, Russians have come to be viewed with suspicion wherever they are abroad.
The second largest group of 2,126 people were Russian citizens married to Latvian citizens, non-citizens and foreigners living here. 426 Russian citizens came to Latvia because of parent-child relations.
The third largest contributor to the granting of TRPs to Russians was work in Latvia: 1,247 people worked here in simple jobs, 216 in highly skilled jobs and 366 provided jobs not only for themselves but also for others.
Belarusian citizens had previously received 2,353 TRPs and 1,686 PRPs.
The flow of people from Russia to Latvia before the amendment of the Immigration Law was noticeable, but not very large compared to the Russian citizens already here and many times smaller than the influx of Ukrainian refugees. The attitude of Latvia and, in a similar way, of other countries towards Russian attempts to enter these countries is dictated by considerations of how to encourage ending Russian aggression. On the one hand, the suspension of entry sends yet another signal that Russian aggression and crimes in Ukraine could affect all Russian nationals. On the other hand, sucking in the smartest, hardest-working etc. Russians could also be presented as undermining Russia in the long term. In the short term, there is also the interest of the countries hosting the Russians, i.e. the business communities in those countries, in acquiring workers who, at least at the moment, cannot afford to bargain hard on wages and other conditions. However, sorting out the good Russians from the bad ones is so difficult in practice that countries are inclined to ban Russians altogether. At least in Latvia, this is also shared by the business community, on whose behalf spoke Andris Bite, board member and co-owner of the fish processing company Karavela, who was recently elected president of the Employers' Confederation of Latvia. He has previously spoken more than once with Neatkarīgā about the need for Latvia to attract labor from abroad, but now he said with the war he has taken a "better no than yes" position against Russian workers. Meaning, that Russia, behind the masks of job-seekers, can bring dangerous people into Latvia.
The amendment to the Immigration Law makes the OCMA a formal mouthpiece, which will only announce the decisions of the Latvian state security authorities in relation to Russian and Belarusian citizens who have come to Latvia or who wish to come to Latvia. The current wording of the law instructs the security authorities to check citizens of the two aggressor countries who want to enter Latvia through the exceptions left for them. These are family reunification, studies and research, and work, provided that the person has not found a job in Latvia, but that a company owned by capital from OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries has found Latvia as a place to move to from Russia or Belarus. Šteins assured Neatkarīgā that such checks are already taking place and the number of TRP refusals is in the dozens. Rancāns promised that the entry conditions would be tightened even further if an unexpectedly large number of Russians and Belarusians were allowed to enter Latvia through the gaps left.
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