Ethnic structure and promotion of national minorities’ cultural identity

Latvia has a multi-ethnic society with representatives of more than 150 nationalities. The Latvian nation was formed through centuries, alongside with the existence of the Baltic German, Russian, Jewish, Polish, as well as Estonian and Lithuanian communities. A multicultural society formed in the cities, especially in Riga. Despite economic and social differences between the ethnic groups, those never turned into ethnic conflicts.

During the 1920s and 1930s, representatives of national minorities constituted ¼ of Latvia’s population. The Republic of Latvia ensured cultural autonomy for national minorities. Some nationalities were represented in the Saeima (Latvian Parliament) by the MEPs of national parties. The national minorities used the guaranteed opportunities to found the national schools, societies, organizations, cultural institutions and to publish the press in their mother tongue. From the European countries only Latvia and Estonia broadly financed the education of national minorities in their mother tongue from the state budget.

After World War II, as a result of the policy carried out by the Soviet Union, approximately 1.5 million people from various regions of the Soviet Union came to live in Latvia voluntarily or by force. Nearly half of them settled down in Latvia which caused a relevant change in the ethnic structure of Latvia. In 1989, the number of Latvians had decreased to 52 % (in comparison to 1935 when Latvians were 77 %).

After the renewal of Latvia’s statehood in 1991, the rights of people belonging to national minorities were also renewed and the naturalisation and the integration of people that came to live in Latvia during the Soviet Union period began. The social integration became one of the top priorities of the Latvian government.

Residents of Latvia by ethnicity and citizenship (according to the data of the Population Register of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs as of 01.07.2011.)

	Population	%	Citizens	%	Non-citizens	%
Latvians	1323713	59.5	1321437	99.83	1198	0.09
Russians	606,972	27.3	364,529	60.06	209934	34.6
Belarusians	78,052	3.51	30,991	39.71	43172	55.3
Ukrainians	54,398	2.45	18,383	33.79	30625	56.3
Poles	50,960	2.29	38916	76.37	10845	21.3
Lithuanians	29174	1.31	18328	62.82	8412	28.8
Jews	9474	0.43	6236	65.82	2764	29.2
Roma	8517	0.38	7999	93.92	468	5.49
Germans	4562	0.21	2225	48.77	1227	26.9
Tatars	2689	0.12	835	31.05	1471	54.7
Armenians	2660	0.12	1147	43.12	1068	40.2
Estonians	2336	0.11	1423	60.92	473	20.2
Others	50,723	2.28	38,929	76.75	10986	21.7
Total	2,224,230	100	1847618	83.07	319,267	14.4

The results of census from the year 2000 show that Latvian is the mother tongue of 58.2% residents, as it is for 95.6% of Latvians, 42.5% of Lithuanians and 39.2% of Estonians. Russian is the mother tongue of 39.6% of residents, as it is for 79.1% of Jews, 72.8% of Belarusians, 67.8% of Ukrainians and 57.7% of Poles.

The Constitution of the Republic of Latvia promulgates a basic principle that persons belonging to national/ethnic minorities have the right to preserve and develop their language, ethnic and cultural identity. Further implementation of the principle is stipulated by the Law of 1991 "On the Unrestricted Development and Right to Cultural Autonomy of Latvia's Nationalities and Ethnic Groups" providing that government institutions should promote the creation of material conditions for the development of the education, language and culture of the nationalities and ethnic groups residing within Latvia's territory, through allocating funds from the national budget for such purposes.

A number of national programmes are being developed and successfully implemented in the field of society integration; a state support system for national minorities and their NGOs has been set up for preserving the national minority cultural heritage and identity, for promoting tolerance and development of the intercultural dialogue. On 22 December 2008, President Valdis Zatlers renewed the National Minorities Advisory Council with the aim to promote the dialogue about ethnic, cultural, language and religion identity issues of the national minorities and to provide support for the promotion of social and political involvement of the national minorities.