Report is available in Latvian only. Following is the English abstract.
The Urban Development and integration Laboratory (PAIL) is our proposed title for a framework to promote public participation in addressing local development and societal integration. The development of Latvian cities, with some exceptions, is to be seen in the context of a declining population and an ageing population. Society’s integration on the basis of shared values remains a challenge, given both the still difficult USSR’s time legacy and Russia’s expanded policies and human migration. The negative migration balance, when more people leave Latvia than when they arrive, does not change the fact that all Latvian municipalities have arrivals from other countries. Latvian reemigrants return with spouses who are carriers of other cultures. Their children, having grown up in another country, are also learning to live in Latvia. PAIL is a framework that allows the municipality to develop a deeper understanding of the possibilities for addressing local development and integration issues and to implement solutions in a long-term perspective.
Latvia faces one of the most severe demographic crises in the European Union. This article examines how Latvian municipalities approach migration as a potential solution to depopulation and how they perceive the contribution of migrants to local …
In our series of policy recommendations we offer conscise take-aways from the most recent migration research
In our series of policy recommendations we offer conscise take-aways from the most recent migration research
This research explores attitudes towards immigration in Latvian society and uses experimental approach to identify factors that influence these attitudes. The research findings will be a useful resource for policymakers, as well as for civil society at large.
The fieldwork, administered by the market research company Norstat Latvija, was conducted in June 2021 by using Computer Assisted Web Interviews with 5,803 respondents. The survey contained two parts. In the beginning, all respondents were asked general questions about immigration, identity, and political behaviour. This part of the survey outlines the sociocultural context of immigration in Latvia. It is followed by an experimental section where every respondent was randomly assigned to either control group or one of five treatment groups. Respondents in treatment groups were exposed to textual vignettes emphasizing different aspects of immigration: