Projects on Migration ⇄ LV

Reception of migrants under conditions of uncertainty: governance and local level inclusion

info@migracija.lv (LU Filozofijas un socioloģijas institūts) — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Objectives of the project

Migration and integration researchers usually see integration is a reciprocal process of adaptation between migrants and host societies, holding both migrants and hosts equally responsible for integration outcomes. In practice, however, the focus has largely been on the responsibilities of migrants, without appreciating the context of the host country, the attitudes of the population and the role of the various integration agents. How integration is understood, interpreted and implemented in everyday practice by what Lipsky (2010) refers to as ‘street level bureaucrats’, and how society and different local actors adapt to and welcome migrants into their communities, is important for the social inclusion of migrants to be truly successful. Coordination between the different actors involved in providing support to refugees is also very important, and has not always been successful in the Latvian case.

Thus, one of the central aims of this ambitious project is to provide a comprehensive and reliable assessment of the multi-faceted context of integration in Latvia and how various local agents affect the integration outcomes of Ukrainian and other third-country migrants. It also aims to provide information which has so far been missing on the needs, plans, everyday experiences, and overall social inclusion and well-being of newly arrived Ukrainian and other third-country migrants in Latvia from their own perspective, and to shed new light on possible governance strategies under conditions of instability and uncertainty.

One of the main objectives of this ambitious project is to provide a comprehensive and reliable assessment of the integration context in Latvia in different areas, analysing separately and in synergy the inclusion of migrants in national policies, municipalities, work environments, educational institutions, local communities and in accessing the necessary services. The project also aims to provide hitherto missing information on the needs, plans, daily experiences and overall social inclusion and well-being of newly arrived Ukrainian and other third-country migrants in Latvia from their own perspectives, as well as to shed light on possible strategies for managing immigration and integration in a context of instability and insecurity.

The research will result in international publications, seminars and a discussion forum, as well as recommendations for policy makers.

Research methods

The study will use both quantitative and qualitative research methods: a survey of Latvian businesses and local authorities, in-depth interviews with migrants, policy makers, local authorities, NGOs, employers, teachers and parents, as well as observation and innovative projective and visual methods.The research methodology proposed in the study, which is based on the analysis of specific municipal ‘cases’, will allow for an understanding of the role of different integration agents in facilitating integration processes, as well as shed light on the everyday experiences, perspectives and needs of migrants themselves.

Throughout the project, we will share updates on this website, as well as on the UL and IPSUL websites.

Team

Project Manager: Inta Mieriņa

Senior researchers:

Researchers:

Daina Grosa
Oksana Žabko
Hanna Paļija
Sabīne Ozola
Aleksandrs Aleksandrovs

PhD students:

Media outreach

«How displaced Ukrainians turn their desires for action into civic engagement in Latvia» – article by Oksana Žabko

«Lettlands Sicherheit – Regierung sieht russischsprachige Minderheit als Risiko» – Inta Mieriņa provides commentary to ARD1 radio (2025.03.27).

«Latvia’s welcoming strategy for ukrainians fleeing war» — Oksana Žabko’s article for Hromada (2024).

«The War in Ukraine and Latvia’s Russian-speaking Community» – Inta Mieriņa’s article for Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS) (2024.06.26).

«Po vstupu do EU následovala v Lotyšsku vlna emigrace. V sousedních zemích hledají lepší život» – Inta Mieriņa talks to Czech Radio news portal iROZHLAS (2024.04.20).

This research is funded by the Latvian Council of Science, project «Reception of migrants under conditions of uncertainty: governance and local level inclusion», project No. LZP-2023/1-0227.

Well-being, integration and liquid migration

info@migracija.lv (LU Filozofijas un socioloģijas institūts) — Sat, 01 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

⭐ We started the project in September 2018 and will work on it through Augutst 2021.

🎯 Aims

East-West intra-EU migration is often characterized using the concept of «liquid migration» — a form of «new migration» that has a more diverse and fluid character than the «old migration».

The key question this project asks is: to what extent do established notions of integration adequately fit an increasingly uprooted group of migrants such as Eastern European mobile citizens?

The project goes beyond the traditional measures of integration such as income and labor market success. By merging migration research and research on subjective well-being, the project will shed new light on the outcomes of integration as experienced by migrants themselves in various areas of life (economic, health, psychological and social wellbeing).

Applying a longitudinal design to an unprecedented large-scale web survey of migrants from Latvia allows to track changes over time, providing the most reliable evidence of the effects of migration on wellbeing and happiness, particularly in relation to the liquid character of contemporary migration. A deeper insight into the situation of migrants will be gained by triangulating the quantitative data with qualitative interviews and administrative data.

❓ Topics in focus

Skills and labour market acivities of migrant population
Subjective well-being
Health dimension
Children and families through migration experiences

This project continues a notable line of social research focused on migration of Latvian population. We draw upon rich experience obtained in 2014–2015 in the project «Emigrant Communities of Latvia», which was futher developed at the University of Latvia in general and at the Institute of Philosophy and sociology in particular.

👥 Team

Project director

Inta Mieriņa

Leading researchers

Mihails Hazans,
Ieva Reine

Researchers

Ilze Koroļeva,
Māris Goldmanis,
Aleksandrs Aleksandrovs,
Daina Grosa,
Laura Bužinska

🔎 Research directions

Interpretation of ‘integration’ in the context of ‘liquid migration’ (WP3)

Taking an interpretative approach, this work package seeks to advance our understanding of the concept of integration in the light of new forms of mobility such as liquid migration characteristic to East European migrants by shedding light on what integration means for the liquid migrants themselves.

A new list of subjective dynamic integration measures will be developed, focusing on individual aspirations, identities and attachments, that do not require constant physical presence and that fit the subjective interpretations and feelings of migrants themselves.

The well-being of uprooted migrants in various areas of life across time (WP4)

In this work package, our objective are:

to provide the most robust statistical assessment of the effect of migration on the social and psychological well-being of migrants;
to reveal the main factors that affect – in the short and long term – the changes or stability in migrants’ subjective assessment of well-being.

The study of the subjective well-being components will be carried out on three levels: theoretical methodological — the analysis of conceptual grounds of emigrants’ life self-actualisation judgements and adaptation in the host countries; empiric methodological — the complex research of empirical indicators that explain subjective well-being, elaboration of typology and determinant models; applied — the ways of applying the interpretation and conclusions drawn from empirical results in actual social policy.

Well-being of migrant children: objective and subjective measures (WP5)

The aim of the work package is to tease out issues that influence the subjective well-being of migrant children — both those who have emigrated away from their homeland as well as those who have remigrated after living elsewhere for a period of time.

Among topics covered in the analysis will be the children’s sense of belonging (to the new country of residence, and the country of origin), their sense of family, self-esteem, identity, coping strategies regarding integration into the new school system (both academically and socially), future hopes and dreams, a sense of emotional and physical well-being (frequency of illness, mood swings, withdrawal, unfamiliar characteristics that may surface), resilience (the ability to cope with change).

These topics will be raised with parents, children and teachers at various stages in the form of interviews of the migration process – before (re)migration, soon after migration and a year after migration to get a sense of the changes (if any) in the families and their attitude to life in general.

The key research question this WP aims to answer is: Looking from both a subjective and objective perspective what are the key factors that affect migrant childrens’ sense of happiness and well-being? We hypothesise that repeatedly uprooted school-aged children need long-term support, specifically catered to their individual needs, and that support mechanisms need to be available not only for children but for parents as well.

As part of this WP the association of return- and transnational migration and social inclusion from the scope of the determinants of health, e.g. participation in society, economic well-being, and accessibility to healthcare, will be studied, applying the gender perspective.

This WP is expected to generate knowledge on behaviour, health and psychological well-being regarding the use of social insurance related to healthcare. The initial step of the project will be a profound study of the EU directives, and how the legislation ensures rights and available health services for different groups of migrants. The data analysis method will consist of explorative, quantitative multivariate regression techniques as well as qualitative studies. Other data collection will also take place, including research on health-related aspects. The triangulation method plans to include in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with return and transnational migrants to Latvia and other European countries, as well as administrative data. Thus, the study is going to, by using objective measurements and individual experiences, analyse perceived social insurance support (as it refers to health) and its impact on health and well-being among migrants.

A direct relationship between wellbeing and the determinants of health will be drawn, and the project is going to be conducted with a gender perspective. The project has an ambition to develop new methodologies in healthcare policy and public health research in relation to transnational migration.

Migrants as agents of change: Unique skills, international experience, and labour market position (WP7)

This WP seeks to explore the role of migrants as agents of change, focusing on unique, rare or complementary skills acquired by migrants through international experience. Second, it will shed light on the question to what extent such skills strengthen migrants’ labour market positions and increase their earnings, job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Skills thus are going to be the key element of the study, linking labour market and well-being effects.

The WP will provide systematic evidence on the scope and variety of unique or complementary skills brought by Latvian emigrants to the host countries and by return migrants to Latvia, distinguishing between liquid and settled migrants on one hand and between general (soft) and specific (hard) skills, on the other.

The research questions this WP aims to answer include: What is the role of different aspects of migrants’ international experience (duration, host country, occupation, etc.) in acquiring unique or complementary skills? How do the unique skills and experience of migrants position them in the labour market as agents of change? How do these skills affect migrants’ earnings, job satisfaction and life satisfaction?

Our methodology

We prepared a concise overview of methodology deployed in our project. The document is available in the publications section of this website.

This research is funded by the Latvian Council of Science, project «Exploring Well-Being and Social Integration in the Context of Liquid Migration: A Longitudinal Approach», project No. lzp-2018/1-0042.

Civic participation of Latvians living in Europe

info@migracija.lv (LU Filozofijas un socioloģijas institūts) — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

✅ Project was completed in 2016.

Aptaujas veikšana un ziņojuma izstrāde par tās rezultātiem ir daļa no projekta «No Eiropas Latviešu kultūras svētku Dziesmu un deju lielkoncerta 2015. gadā uz Eiropas Latviešu kongresu 2017. gadā», kas tiek īstenots ar Sabiedrības integrācijas fonda finansiālu atbalstu. Par projekta ietvaros tapušo materiālu saturu atbild Eiropas Latviešu apvienība.

Aptaujas koordinatore socioloģe Ilze Koroļeva norāda, ka aptauja par Eiropas diasporas līdzdalības praksi ir loģisks turpinājums pirms diviem gadiem veiktajai, līdz šim vērienīgākajai Latvijas emigrantu aptaujai, kas izraisīja lielu ažiotāžu Latvijas publiskajā telpā. «Šī aptauja ir vērsta uz ārzemēs dzīvojošo latviešu līdzdalības potenciāla padziļinātāku izpēti,» skaidro Koroļeva.

ELA pārstāve Elīna Pinto uzsver: «Mūsdienu Eiropā latvietība un piederība Latvijai nav ģeogrāfiski jēdzieni. Arī uzturoties ārpus Latvijas, mēs varam dot savu pilsonisko ieguldījumu visdažādākajos veidos: iesaistoties latviešu biedrību darbā, piedaloties vēlēšanās, ziedojot labdarībai, aktīvi komentējot visai sabiedrībai svarīgas norises presē un sociālajos tīklos. ELA pamatmērķis, veicot šo aptauju, ir noskaidrot, cik lielā mērā Eiropā dzīvojošie no Latvijas izbraukušie uztur pilsonisko saikni ar Latviju un kādi ir tās motīvi vai šķēršļi. Mūs interesē arī cilvēku iesaiste savu mītnes zemju sabiedriskajā dzīvē.»

Emigrant Communities of Latvia

info@migracija.lv (LU Filozofijas un socioloģijas institūts) — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

✅ This project was implemented between January 2014 and August 2015.

Why this project

Our overall aim is to obtain comprehensive information on people who have left Latviain the recent decades and on Latvian diaspora in general.

Inta Mieriņa, the project scientific director, notes:

«This is the largest and most ambitious survey of this kind conducted by scientists in Latvia trying to get a more complete picture of Latvians living abroad. Together with other project activities, the survey will provide an invaluable contribution to the scientific study of the preservation of national identity and culture in emigration, labour mobility, economics of education, politics of re-emigration and diaspora at the national and municipality level, as well as other topics; it will also enrich the public’s knowledge and understanding of the Latvian people — our contemporaries in the whole wide World.»

By now, the project produced detailed profiles of Latvian emigrant communities in main destination countries and substantially improved understanding of emigration trends, emigrant’s everyday life, their needs, hopes and future plans.

In our work, we combine qualitative methods (190 in-depth interviews and focus group discussions) and a large-scale quantitative survey with longitudinal-ready design.

Highlights

Implemented in 2014, the largest scientific survey of Latvians abroad attracted unprecedented attention — 14,068 respondents¹ from 118 countries shared their experience and opinions in the large-scale survey of Latvians living abroad launched by researchers at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology and the Faculty of Economics and Management at the University of Latvia.

The activity level of Latvians currently or partly residing abroad was overwhelming, and the group of researchers currently performs in-depth analysis of the unique data.

The team of researchers who base their work on qualitative methodologies, accompanied by several external experts, conducted 187 in-depth interviews and 3 focus-group discussions during the course of the project.

👏 We express our deepest gratitude to the thousands of participants in our survey! 👏

The project researchers wrote a number of scientific articles with focus on different aspects of Latvian diaspora, including a collective monograph. Several articles are in the process of publication by peer-reviewed journals.

Publications

We offer to explore the findings of our researchers that are available in English at the moment:

The Diaspora of Hope (summary of the collective monograph);
Are Emigrants Less Pro-Social in Their New Community Than They Used To Be at Home? (presentation by I. Mieriņa);
Migration Experience of the Baltic Countries in the Context of Economic Crisis (by Mihails Hazans in «Labor Migration, EU Enlargement, and the Great Recession»);
Negotiating identities and friendships while living abroad: experiences of Latvian migrants (by Inta Mieriņa, Ilze Koroļeva in European Scientific Journal).

Full list of our publications is available here.

Project team