Currently, out of 2.3 million residents of Latvia, 1.42 million people have the right to vote. However, there are still 450,000 non-citizens in the country, a third of whom will never become citizens (pensioners and people approaching retirement age simply do not need it). How many of the remaining three hundred thousand will decide to naturalize is a question. Approximately every third of them is a young person under the age of 27. Given the fashionable phenomenon of leaving to work abroad and subsequently settling there, the priorities of young people may well run counter to the desires and hopes of politicians for a new electorate. Although, as statistics show, it is the age group from 18 to 30 that is the most active in terms of naturalization. If we take into account the gender aspect, the need to accept Latvian citizenship is more acute for women - they account for two-thirds of the “new citizens”.
The Naturalization Board (NB) officials should have enough work for another fifteen to twenty years. If we assume that 250,000 people will still choose the Latvian passport, then with an average, increased pace of granting citizenship (approximately 16,000 people per year), the need for the NB structure will only disappear by 2020.
According to NB data, back in 1995 the total number of people living in Latvia but without the right to vote was 735,000. The impressive reduction in the number of non-citizens has been achieved, for the most part, by the rapid passing away of the population. Mortality in Latvia still exceeds the birth rate, and in this respect alone the country has decreased by exactly 200,000 people over the last ten years. The mass outflow of the population from the republic, especially in the 1990s, also had an effect. Of course, for the most part these were representatives of the non-indigenous nationality. In addition, since 1999, about 1,500 people have voluntarily renounced citizenship, and the same number have been deprived of the right to citizenship by a decision of the Latvian Ministry of Justice.
The naturalization process itself was started on February 1, 1995. Since that day, the Naturalization Board, tasked with enforcing the citizenship law, has received over 115,000 applications from candidates for the blue passport. Not everyone ultimately reaches the final goal, which has recently become more attractive. Indeed, along with receiving the blue passport, new citizens of Latvia automatically become full-fledged residents of the European Union. In the relatively easy procedure for obtaining Latvian citizenship (it is necessary to pass an exam on knowledge of the language and history), a tendency of “tightening the screws” has recently emerged – stricter requirements.
Voices of those in power are already being heard about a possible check of candidates for loyalty. True, it is not yet explained what should be meant by this. Another innovation is also being discussed - the introduction of a limit of 5,000 naturalized persons per 10,000 newborns. So far, common sense prevails, and such restrictions have not been adopted.
Meanwhile, the non-Latvian population, for the most part, is gradually deciding on its priorities. Moreover, there have already been shifts in this regard, as evidenced by the dynamics of growth in the number of citizenship applicants. As a result, having gained the right to vote, people actively participate in elections. Naturalized citizens, who are mostly Russian by nationality (about 68%), could already significantly change the balance of forces on the political Olympus at the next elections. The first signs of change are already evident – the recent repeated elections in Rezekne clearly demonstrated that the left is gaining strength. In the Latgalian capital, the people favored them, allowing the left to create a ruling coalition. By the way, the last municipal elections in Riga also almost shook the foundations of the right, but the left and centrists lacked just a little to consolidate their forces.