Non-citizens (Latvia)
[6][7][8][9] The European Commission "regrets that the situation of non-citizens has not been resolved during the entry negotiations between Latvia and Estonia and the EU.
[15] According to the population census, in March 2011, there were 290,660 non-citizens living in Latvia or 14.1% of Latvian residents,[18] down from approximately 715,000 in 1991.
[22] As at 2020, the majority of non-citizens, 62.3%, live in the three biggest cities of country: Riga, Daugavpils and Liepāja, which comprise 41.3% of Latvia's population.
[24] The referendum held in October 1998 eliminated the "windows" system, which limited the age groups allowed to naturalize each year.
It also gave the right to children of non-citizens born in Latvia after August 21, 1991, to be registered as citizens without naturalisation[25] barring imprisonment or other citizenship.
Since January 1, 2020, Latvian citizenship is granted automatically to all children born in Latvia no matter what status their parents have (citizens or non–citizens).
[32] Non-citizens are named as an example of problems of statelessness by Commissioner for Human Rights,[8] although conceding that non-citizens may not prefer citizenship for their children,[33] and the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance recommends Latvia "revisit the existing requirements for naturalization with the objective of facilitating the granting of citizenship to non-citizens, implementing the commitments established by the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
"[9] Latvian Ombudsman Romāns Apsītis has considered the "specific legal status" of non-citizens to be questionable from the viewpoint of international law.
Pension rights are limited,[36] and non-citizens cannot hold certain positions in local and national government, the civil service, and other governmental entities.
[41] Former members of foreign military (like the Soviet Army), people convicted of propagating fascist or communist ideas or inciting ethnic hatred, and individuals considered hostile to the Republic of Latvia cannot be granted citizenship.
Nowadays, the Harmony Party supports making naturalization and citizenship for some categories of non-citizens easier to obtain.
The OSCE mission monitoring the 2006 parliamentary elections mentioned that Approximately 400,000 people in Latvia, some 18 per cent of the total population, had not obtained Latvian or any other citizenship and therefore still had the status of "non-citizens".
The OSCE claimed that the fact that a significant percentage of the adult population did not hold voting rights represented a continuing democratic deficit.
[52]A resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in November 2006 found: The Assembly considers that the naturalisation regulations adopted in Latvia do not raise insuperable obstacles to the acquisition of Latvian nationality and that the applicable procedure does not entail any requirements that are excessive or contrary to existing European standards.
However, when it comes to the very specific situation of non-citizens, which is unprecedented and therefore lacks a reference framework of European norms or practices, the Assembly considers that further improvements are possible to avoid unnecessary requirements for the acquisition of Latvian nationality.
The Russian Foreign Office has published a collection[64] of international recommendations to Latvia concerning the minority rights, including those on the non-citizenship issue.
[68] Earlier, Latvian citizens were charged more for a Russian single-entry visa than non-citizens (more than five times the fee as of December 2007) seen by T. Malmlof as rewarding if not encouraging statelessness.
As reported, "the continued existence of the status of non-citizen" mostly held by representatives of national minorities is "deeply problematic in terms of real or perceived equality and social cohesion" (§29).
His report also contained clarifications provided by the Latvian government in response, including: The Commissioner attributed that there are still large numbers of non-citizens, particularly with regard to children, to "lack of commitment" on the part of Latvian authorities, whose response was that Latvia is materially committed to the rights of its minorities, and that from a practical standpoint there is little additional benefit and motivation to become a citizen versus remaining a non-citizen.
