The Baltic States

Abstract

Since their incorporation into the Soviet Union, the Baltic States have attracted high levels of immigration from other Soviet republics. Due to their well-developed infrastructure, after World War II the Baltic States hosted, in particular, the development of a number of all-union industries, a process which led to substantial levels of labour migration from other republics. Especially in Estonia and Latvia, immigration primarily consisted of poorly qualified workers recruited by factories in heavy industry and the construction sector. This process naturally determined the considerable increase in the share of foreign-born population in the Baltic States, a population consisting of ethnic groups with few social, historical, cultural or demographic patterns in common with the Baltic States. Since the economic restructuring in the newly independent Baltic States has primarily affected the all-union industries (which had never been integrated into the local economies and which were highly dependent upon the continuous inflow of workers from other republics), a significant proportion of the workers who have been laid-off consists of ‘rootless’ immigrants who would be prepared to re-migrate to other regions of employment.KeywordsLabour Force ParticipationMigration PolicyBaltic StateMass MigrationWork PermitThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.