Demography, Latvia, Markets and Companies, Society

The representative of the ministry said that during the project regional remigration coordinators have contacted around 1,300 Latvian families in foreign countries, and 130 families, or 330 people, have already returned to Latvia. The project’s data shows that another 353 people are planning to move back to Latvia in the near future.

“Yes, this may not be a very high number, but these have only been eight months since the launch of the project, so there are reasons to say that the project is successful and necessary,” Rijkuris said.

In his words, one of the remigration coordinators’ main tasks is to tell emigrants about Latvia as it is today, because many emigrants believe it is the same as five, eight or ten years ago.

Varis Putnins, a representative of the Environmental Protection and Regional Development Ministry’s regional policy department, informed that nine of the returnees had received government support for starting business projects.

The Environmental Protection and Regional Development Ministry launched the pilot project Regional Remigration Coordinator earlier this year to facilitate the return of Latvian expatriates.