NA condemns the “immigration increase plans” developed by the Ministry of Education and considers them “clearly unacceptable”

Opposition members point out that it is about a “significant” increase in the number of immigrants in Latvia.

NA leader Raivis Dzintars believes that it is ironic that the goal of increasing immigration is written in the section on integration, although the increase in the population of a foreign culture means the exact opposite: the division of society and the deterioration of the security situation.

“The experience of European countries shows that the mass integration of foreigners does not work even in countries where the proportion of indigenous people is significantly higher than in Latvia. As a result of the occupation, our land has already experienced a catastrophic decline in the proportion of indigenous people, therefore such experiments would be in direct contradiction to the goal of a Latvian and united society,” he says. Amber.

The opposition party promises to ask the Minister of Culture Agnes Logina (P) and other representatives of the government parties for explanations on this issue.

NA calls on the civil society to be active and to use the opportunities in the public consultation of the plan to convey a clear message that any expansion of new immigration in Latvia is unacceptable. According to the opinion of the opposition members, the purpose of establishing the Latvian state is to ensure the existence of the Latvian nation, its language and culture through time.

As the LETA agency was informed by the Ministry of Culture (MoC), the plan has been prepared to ensure the fulfillment of the goals and tasks set in the guidelines for the development of a united and civically active society for 2021-2027, as well as in the National Development Plan for 2021-2027.

“All the action directions of this plan, including the integration of foreigners, are defined in the guidelines. This plan only defines specific activities for the implementation of the action directions. Most of the activities were already included in the United and civically active society development plan for 2022-2023,” emphasizes the CM.

Also, the CM explains that the plan does not mention the number of new immigrants, but the number of immigrants who apply and successfully qualify for long-term residence status in Latvia. KM states that the indicators are the forecast of professional researchers, which, analyzing the data, were expressed in 2020, and are included in the guidelines for the development of a united and civically active society for 2021-2027.

“As can be seen from the statistics of the Directorate of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLD), this number is consistently low, which may mean that citizens of third countries do not want to stay in Latvia for a long time or cannot integrate here, including due to insufficient integration support,” notes the CM.

The PMLP website states that 595 permanent residence permits were issued in 2021, 714 in 2022, and 786 in 2023.