[BRIEF NOTE] Lithuanians Abroad
Sep. 15th, 2005 01:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldWriting for The Baltic Times, Milda Seputyte observes that emigration has become a major political issue in Lithuania.
According to the Irish Examiner, Lithuanian immigrants do form a sizable community in the Republic of Ireland, part of the wave of immigration that has brought the Republic's population back to the levels since the 1860s. Ireland Online's on-line news, in the meantime, reports that the Lithuanian community is beginning to organize itself, setting up ethnic clubs and community newspapers in the time-honoured fashion of immigrant groups everywhere.
The Lithuanian community in Ireland is new. Lithuanian emigration, however, is not, as noted at the English-language Lithuanian web-magazine Sociumas.
The Lithuanian migration, precipitated by the desire for a higher standard of living, was massive. Not only was the natural increase of the Lithuanian population almost cancelled out by emigration, less than a fifth of migrants ever returned to Lithuania. After the First World War, the immigration quotas of the United States shut down this outflow, with a diminished current directed to South America. Even so, emigration remained a serious problem for Lithuania, almost as significant, in fact, as contemporary Ireland's emigration troubles.
How long will it take for Lithuania to follow Ireland's trajectory, from mass emigration to mass immigration? Lately, the Lithuanian economy has been booming, but Lithuania is still one of the poorest of the EU's member-states. As Dr. Boguslavas Gruzevskis notes in his paper "Labour Migration in Lithuania" (PDF format), it's generally the relatively well-off--the ambitious andw ell-educated young--who are motivated to emigrate. The Lithuanian-Irish community seems set to continue its rapid growth.
Nearly 15 years after regaining independence, Lithuania’s large-scale emigration trends are finally showing their affect, with unofficial statistics indicating that over 300,000 have left the Baltic state since 1991.
For a country with a population of 3.4 million people, this is the equivalent of every Kaunas resident packing their bags and leaving the country.
Alarm over the issue has served as a recurring theme in recent political discourse, and many admit that little has been done to prevent such emigration flows.
The question under current debate is just what can be done to retrieve nationals, since the country’s labor pool is sinking.
“As a politician, I am ashamed because neither my party nor I did anything so that Lithuanians could live well and in honor,” said Conservative MP Audronius Azubalis.
Last week Azubalis accompanied fellow Liberal Centrist Gintaras Steponavicius to the Lithuanian community’s first congress in Ireland. The organization now includes some 100,000 nationals.
“The atmosphere in Dublin is that the city’s becoming quite Lithuanian. Indeed, it feels like some 100,000 Lithuanians live there,” said Deputy Parliamen-tary Chairman Steponavicius.
According to the Irish Examiner, Lithuanian immigrants do form a sizable community in the Republic of Ireland, part of the wave of immigration that has brought the Republic's population back to the levels since the 1860s. Ireland Online's on-line news, in the meantime, reports that the Lithuanian community is beginning to organize itself, setting up ethnic clubs and community newspapers in the time-honoured fashion of immigrant groups everywhere.
The Lithuanian community in Ireland is new. Lithuanian emigration, however, is not, as noted at the English-language Lithuanian web-magazine Sociumas.
More or less pronounced migration manifested itself in Lithuania only from the middle of the 19th century, following the collapse of the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth. First, the uprisings of 1831 and 1863 against Russians forced quite a number of population, especially those who belonged to the gentry and priests, to leave Lithuania.
The famine of 1867-1868 (economic factors) as well as the introduction of compulsory 25 year military service in the Russian Army and national oppression (political factors), against the background of very slow economic and industrial development, and the increasing number of surplus population in rural areas were the main reasons of further emigration increase.
On the whole, the end of the 19th century can be characterized as the beginning of the first wave of mass emigration from Lithuania to the west, mainly the USA., which occurred almost simultaneously with the start of these processes on other East European, mainly Slavic countries.
In 1869-1899 the number of emigrants from Lithuania to the United States alone reached 50,000 people. But these data are not accurate, because before 1899 the Immigration Bureau of the USA did not register Lithuanians as “Lithuanians”, most frequently they were indicated as Poles or Russians.
Only since 1899 more or less accurate statistics on Lithuanian emigration to the USA is available. According to the USA official statistics, from 1899 to 1914 252,594 Lithuanians emigrated to the USA (Rackauskas, 1915) – the main country of destination of emigrants from Lithuania (table 1.1.).
[. . .]
The number of emigrants to other western countries was much smaller. Before 1914 only about 14,000 people emigrated to the United Kingdom, about 10,000 to South America, 5,000 – to Canada.
The Lithuanian migration, precipitated by the desire for a higher standard of living, was massive. Not only was the natural increase of the Lithuanian population almost cancelled out by emigration, less than a fifth of migrants ever returned to Lithuania. After the First World War, the immigration quotas of the United States shut down this outflow, with a diminished current directed to South America. Even so, emigration remained a serious problem for Lithuania, almost as significant, in fact, as contemporary Ireland's emigration troubles.
Despite the fact that emigration from Lithuania, if compared with pre-war period decreased considerably, according to emigration rates Lithuania was among the leaders in the world, next to classical country of emigration – Ireland (Vaitiekunas, 1977). In 1926 Lithuania provided 47 emigrants per 10,000 population, while this indicator in other European countries, except for Ireland, was considerably lower: 22 in Estonia, 20 in Poland, 10 in Germany, 20 in Spain, 32 in Italy, 101 in Ireland.
How long will it take for Lithuania to follow Ireland's trajectory, from mass emigration to mass immigration? Lately, the Lithuanian economy has been booming, but Lithuania is still one of the poorest of the EU's member-states. As Dr. Boguslavas Gruzevskis notes in his paper "Labour Migration in Lithuania" (PDF format), it's generally the relatively well-off--the ambitious andw ell-educated young--who are motivated to emigrate. The Lithuanian-Irish community seems set to continue its rapid growth.
