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INTEGRATION PRACTICE and PERSPECTIVES Baltic Institute Of Baltic Institute of Social Sciences INTEGRATION PRACTICE AND PERSPECTIVES RIGA 2006 This publication has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union and the Republic of Latvia. The contents of this publication is the sole responsibility of the Baltic Institute of Social Sciences and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union or the Republic of Latvia. Baltijas Sociālo Zinātņu institūts Scientific editor: Brigita Zepa Authors: Brigita Zepa, Inese Šūpule, Līga Krastiņa, Iveta Ķešāne, Miķelis Grīviņš, Iveta Bebriša, Ilze Ieviņa Translation: Kārlis Streips Cover design: Linda Prātniece Printed: SIA „Silca Printi” © Baltic Institute of Social Sciences, 2006 Elizabetes street 65 - 16, Riga LV-1050, Latvia Phone: 371 7217553 Fax: 371 7217560 www.biss.soc.lv CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................... 4 2. DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH...................................................................... 5 3. THE THEORETICAL PART OF THE RESEARCH................................................... 7 4. CONCLUSIONS........................................................................................................ 15 5. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING PUBLIC INTEGRATION 25 POLICIES.................................................................................................................. 6. RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH.............................................................................. 26 6.1. STUDYING THE PROCESSES OF PUBLIC INTEGRATION................................... 26 Strategies of acculturation................................................................................. 26 The importance of ethnic and civic identity......................................................... 56 The sense of endangerment, cultural chauvinism.............................................. 60 Attitudes toward integration agents: political parties, politicians, NGOs and the 65 media.................................................................................................................. 6.2. THE ROLE OF THE PRESS IN CONSTRUCTING COLLECTIVE 74 IDENTITIES................................................................................................................. Critical discourse analysis: a historical approach............................................... 74 The goals and the empirical materials of press analysis...................................... 77 Results of the press analysis.............................................................................. 78 Approval of the Declaration of Independence (1990)….......................... 78 The full restoration of Latvia’s independence (1991).............................. 85 Debates over the Citizenship law (1994)................................................ 93 Consideration of the Language law (1999)............................................. 98 Debates before Latvia’s accession to the European Union 106 (2003)...................................................................................................... Protests against minority education reforms (2004)).............................. 116 Debates over the Framework Convention for the Protection of National 122 Minorities (2005)..................................................................................... 6.3. RESEARCH CONCERNING THE DYNAMICS OF POLITICAL 132 INTEGRATION.............................................................................................................. Support for political parties during Saeima elections on the basis of ethnic 132 belonging – 1993, 1995, 1998, 2002……............................................................. Analysis of party documents.................................................................................. 137 6.4. THE NGO SECTOR AS AN AGENT FOR PUBLIC 147 INTEGRATION............................................................................................................. 6.5. THE POSITIONS OF THE POLITICAL ELITE VIS-À-VIS PUBLIC INTEGRATION 175 ISSUES......................................................................................................................... Secondary analysis of surveys of the elite.......................................................... 175 Analysis of in-depth interviews with politicians..................................................... 180 Integration practice and perspectives 2006 1. INTRODUCTION Public integration policies that are declared in political documents speak to the involvement of all of Latvia’s residents in pursuit of the overall goals of society. These speak to the guarantee that the Latvian nation will have the right to self-determination, as well as to the right of non-Latvians to preserve their native language and culture.1 The Public Integration Programme says that public integration in Latvia involves partnership among various social strata, Latvians and non-Latvians, and citizens and non-citizens. All parties involved in integration must be active, according to the document.2 Issues related to this research are based on the fact that there has been no harmony among those who are pursuing integration policies. On the one hand, the Public Integration Programme which was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2001 declares the state’s official position vis-à-vis issues of public integration. On the basis of this document, the government approved a series of laws which relate to ethnic policy in Latvia, the aim being to ensure that the laws are in line with EU documents which regulate the rights of minorities. The policy is aimed at increasing the number of Latvian citizens, as well as at encouraging political participation by citizens and non-citizens alike. On the other hand, there are quite a few politicians in Latvia who pursue a different position – one that could be termed a “nationalist political discourse.” These politicians oppose the official integration discourse of Latvia, as well as the positions which the EU takes vis-à-vis minority issues. The For the Fatherland and Freedom/Latvian National Independence Movement party, for instance, has proposed amendments to Latvia’s citizenship law which would limit the abilities of non-citizens to undergo naturalisation.3 Nationalist radicals have written texts which are even more out of line with the official integration discourse. These texts are clearly intolerant and even hostile vis-à-vis Russians in Latvia.4 An “opposition discourse” which criticises both the Public Integration Programme and its implementation, meanwhile, can be found in the Russian language mass media of Latvia.5 In the Latvian language mass media, by contrast, there is usually support for the official integration discourse.6 Previous studies show that local residents have the widest possible variety of opinions about these issues. Everyday experiences sometimes dictate a discourse of neutrality, while other survey respondents present an intolerant lack of understanding with respect to issues of ethnic policy along with a series of complaints about these issues. The study “Ethno- political Tensions in Latvia: A Search for a Resolution to the Conflict” shows that in discussions about ethnic relations, respondents differentiate between two levels – ethnic relations in society at large and ethnic relations in individual relationships. The dominant discourse among Latvians and non-Latvians involves a unique differentiation – the public at large claims that ethnic relations are poor (people say that relations are bad, conflict-based, harsh, etc.), while descriptions of individual relationships involve a wide range of statements, ranging from neutral to positive ones. The existence of conflicting discourses among various agents of integration serves to support the goal of this study – to research processes related to public integration, as well as agents which have an effect on these. 1 “Public Integration in Latvia”, National Programme (2001), Rīga, p. 8. 2 Ibid., pp. 8-10. 3 Arāja, D. “Pirms vēlēšanām atgrūž nepilsoņus” (Non-Citizens are Pushed Aside in Advance of the Election), Diena, 5 May 2006. 4 “Gardam kriminālvajāšana” (Garda Faces Criminal Prosecution), BNS news agency report, Diena, 5 May 2006. 5 Zepa, B., Šūpule, I., Kļave, E., Krastiņa, L., Krišāne, J. and Tomsone, I. (2005). Etnopolitiskā spriedze Latvijā: konflikta risinājuma meklējumi” (Ethno-political Tensions in Latvia: A Search for a Resolution to the Conflict), Baltic Institute of Social Sciences, Rīga, pp. 1-72. 6 Ibid. © Baltic Institute of Social Sciences, 2006 4 Integration practice and perspectives 2006 2. DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH There are five areas of research which help to study the main integration agents – 1) The mass media; 2) NGOs; 3) Political parties; 4) The political elite; 5) Processes of integration in society. 1. The role of the press in constructing collective identities Press analysis that has been conducted in the past has usually involved a specific period of time. This project involves a review of the way in which Latvian and Russian publications have depicted issues concerning a sense of belonging to the state, along with civic and ethnic identity, over the last 15 years (from 1990 until 2005). Research has usually involved content analysis. This time researchers will use discourse analysis instead, which will make it possible to look at the process through which the mass media construct collective identities: • Political identity (belonging
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