Analytics, Demography, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Society

According to Lappuke, during the economic crisis years, from 2008 to 2010, negative migration from Latvia reached approximately 40,000 persons, but last year there were approximately 9,000 more persons who left Latvia than arrived in the country.

Lappuke admitted that the fact that there are still more people leaving Latvia than arriving is not pleasing news, however, he emphasized that emigration is a natural process.

Evaluating the Economy Ministry's re-emigration plan, the ambassador admitted that some of the goals set-out in the plan could be impossible to achieve, but that many of the ideas included in the plan are of great value and should be implemented.

On April 2, a special conference on emigration in the Baltics and Eastern Europe will be held in Riga, which is organized by the Riga Stockholm School of Economics, the Foreign Ministry and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).