scholarly journals Migration from Post-Soviet countries to Poland and the Baltic States: trends and features

Baltic Region ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Vladislav V. Vorotnkov ◽  
Andrzej Habarta

This article aims to analyse migration from the post-Soviet space to the northeastern periphery of the EU (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) and examine the hypothesis about these states, once countries of origin, turning into destinations for migrants. A change in the socio-economic paradigm and accession to the EU sped up economic development in the Baltics and Poland. Despite growing welfare and income levels and a decline in the unemployment rate, further economic growth was hampered by the outflow of skilled workforce and resulting labour shortages. In response, the governments of the Baltics and Poland drew up programmes to attract international labour. Soon these countries transformed from exporters of labour into importers. Unlike Western European countries, Poland and, to a lesser extent, the Baltic States are trying to attract migrants from neighbouring nations with similar cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In the long run, this strategy will facilitate migrant integration into the recipient society. The Polish and Lithuanian governments are devising measures to encourage ethnic Poles and Lithuanians to repatriate from post-Soviet republics. To achieve the aim of the study, we investigate the features of migration flows, trends in migration, migration policies of recipient countries, and the evolution of diaspora policies.

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yulia Nikitina

Most studies of the post-Soviet space often explicitly or implicitly analyze Russia not as a new independent state but as the political successor of the USSR, thereby almost automatically leading to conclusions about Russian neo-imperialism. This paper explains how distorted discourses on the Soviet legacy originated and how they obstruct equal relations between Russia and other former Soviet republics using the example of the Baltic states.


Author(s):  
Oleg G. Karpovich ◽  
◽  
Semen S. Boykov ◽  

This article discusses the main problems and contradictions of interaction between the Russian Federation and organizations of Russian compatriots in the Baltic States. Practical aspects of interaction with organizations of compatriots (issues of granting grants, financing activities) are analyzed. The article examines the international legal framework for the activities of organizations of compatriots against the background of opposition to their activities by state bodies in the countries of their location. Russia cannot completely curtail the program of support for compatriots abroad, as this would contradict its state priorities as a regional leader in the post-Soviet space. It is in its interest to continue to provide assistance to the coordinating councils, but only with the specific interests of our country in mind. A critical analysis is presented, as well as practical recommendations for overcoming the existing problems.


Author(s):  
P. I. Pashkovsky

In this article, the author described features of Russian integration policy towards the Baltic States (1992–2009). I showed that in the first half of the 1990s, the mechanisms of Russian integration policy were bilateral and multilateral negotiations. From the mid to late 1990s, Russia declared the concept of multi-speed and multi-level integration. Under the influence of internal and external factors, Russia in this period is experiencing its decline in influence and the crisis of integration policy in the post-Soviet space. Since the beginning of the 2000s, Russian integration policy has been characterised by the priority of bilateral ties and economic pragmatism. The relations of Russia with Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in this period are built on mutually beneficial bases, with many unresolved problems and sometimes a high degree of tension. In the second half of the first decade of the XXI century, under the influence of internal and external factors, Russia concentrates on internal modernisation and protection of its interests in the post-Soviet space in general and in the Baltic States region in particular.


Author(s):  
Alexandr S. Levchenkov ◽  

The article analyzes the influence of the concepts of the Intermarium and the Baltic-Black Sea Arc on the formation of Ukraine’s foreign policy in 1990 – early 2000. The use of these concepts in American, European and Ukrainian geopolitical thought, which historically included the idea of opposing Russian influence in the region, contributed to the increase in tension and was aimed at further disintegration of the Western flank of the post-Soviet space. The article proves that the design of the Euro-Atlantic vector of Ukraine’s foreign policy was already active under the first two Ukrainian presidents – Leonid Kravchuk (1991–1994) and Leonid Kuchma (1994–2005). One of the concrete attempts to implement the idea of forming a common political, economic, transport and logistics space of the Black Sea-Caspian region with a promising expansion of the cooperation zone to the whole of Eastern Europe and the Eastern Baltic during the presidency of Leonid Kuchma was the foundation and launch of a new regional organization, Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, better known as GUAM (composed by the initial letters of names of member states – Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova; when Uzbekistan was also a member of Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, the name of the organization was GUUAM), which is an alternative to Eurasian projects with the participation of Russia.


Author(s):  
L. S. Voronkov

On the basis of analysis of integration processes between Nordic, Benelux countries and post-soviet states in Europe the author expresses hesitations in accepting the integration experiences gained by the EU as the criterion of efficiency and the pattern for the post-Soviet space. He does not consider that an involvement of all countries with market economy into processes of regional integration, if they do not try to achieve certain political aims through integration, is the universal regularity in the globalized world. In these cases neither free trade zones nor custom unions can be considered as integration stages, but they continue to be the tools for further development of trade. The author proposes to assess the EU evolution with regard to the legal norms of international organizations, where state sovereignty of members is strengthened, not given up to supernational bodies. In case the idea of reestablishment of an unified state on the remains of the former USSR, linked to the necessity to hand over the recently acquired sovereignty to it, is laid down to the ground for practical measures of integration, this kind of integration will hardly be attractive to the potential post-Soviet participants. This perspective is hardly desired for Russia either. The integration path of the EU reflects the peculiarities of the European situation and specific interests of its member states. Many details of the EU activity are not applicable to other integration groupings in Europe and membership criteria in every of them is not universal. Any efforts to construct integration processes in the post-Soviet space in accordance to the EU model without proper consideration to integration experiences of other countries and to political, economic, social, cultural, demographic, military peculiarities of the countries concerned seem to be not acceptable and founded.


Author(s):  
V. V. Vorotnikov

The economic crisis fueled contradictions among the parties and weakened public support of internal and external policies of the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia). Natural necessity to abandon previous one-sided Euro-Atlantic foreign political and foreign economic orientation in favor of more balanced approach towards relations with Eastern neighbours (primarily with Russia) has become the issue of key importance that turned out to be a stumbling block for main political parties (ruling parties, opposition, so called ‚Russian‘ parties) in the Baltic states. The attitude to this problem became crucial during recent political crisis in Latvia, whereas in Lithuania and Estonia it led to changing rhetoric on foreign political issues by opposition parties. It is possible to nominally define the political situation in Lithuania as partisan consensus, whereas in Latvia and Estonia foreign political strategies complicated by unresolved domestic ethnic and language minorities problems are a battlegroud for ruling right-wing conservative coalitions and social-democratic oppositions. So, main social and political forces in the Baltic states faced the task to find a new consensus on foreign political issues in order to efficiently develop national economies under the conditions of financial economic turbulence in the EU and worldwide as well as to support social unity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Tomas Bekišas

This paper aims to determine Lithuania’s, Latvia’s, and Estonia’s parties’ positions on the European Union (EU) and to ascertain whether these party positions mirror their voters’ positions on the EU. Analysis suggests that parties in this region have rather varied positions on the EU, with the exception of hard-Eurosceptic views, which are absent in Baltic states’ party systems. This paper also indicates that parties in the Baltic states tend to mirror, with some exceptions, their voters positions on the EU. This suggests that there may be additional factors determining parties’ positions regarding the EU in the Baltics.


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