LITHUANIA'S NEWEST IMMIGRANTS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 VILNIUS 001100

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/NB, DRL/IL, PRM/ENA

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SMIG ELAB ECON PGOV LH
SUBJECT: LITHUANIA'S NEWEST IMMIGRANTS

REF: A) VILNIUS 1029
B) VILNIUS 962
C) 04 VILNIUS 1522
D) 04 VILNIUS 1493


1. SUMMARY: Immigration to Lithuania is increasing, with
foreign workers filling gaps in the local economy as
Lithuanians continue to emigrate in large numbers.
Countries of the former Soviet Union, notably Russia,
Belarus, and Ukraine, are the primary source of Lithuania's
immigrants. With some exceptions, immigrants appear to
integrate fairly well into Lithuanian society, although
more as a result of their small numbers than efforts of the
GOL. Immigration has to date not significantly affected
Lithuania's religious or linguistic balance. While its
s
modest immigration system has thus far served the country
well, Lithuania is not yet prepared to deal with the
inevitable immigration pressures to come. END SUMMARY.

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General Immigration Trends
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2. Lithuania's immigration system does not clearly
distinguish between foreigners who intend to reside in the
country temporarily and those who wish to do so on a more
permanent basis, making it difficult to track the number of
immigrants entering Lithuania. This system, in sharp
contrast to our own, is likely the result of Lithuania's
general inexperience with large immigrant inflows. The
Statistics Department estimates that 3,571 people
immigrated to Lithuania from January-July 2005, a figure
dwarfed by the large number of Lithuanians currently
departing the country (net migration for 2004 stood at an
estimated -9612). These numbers are not precise, however,
and several other measures indicate general immigration
trends.


3. Foreign nationals wishing to reside in Lithuania for any
significant period of time (regardless of purpose) must
obtain a temporary residency permit from the Lithuanian
Department of Migration. The total number of issued
residency permits has consistently increased in recent
years - 6,559 in 2004, 5,604 through September of 2005.
The Migration Department has issued the most residency
permits in 2005 to citizens of the following countries:

Russia - 20.59%
Belarus - 15.58%
Ukraine - 13.70%
United States - 6.07%


4. Lithuania's visa issuance statistics are also useful in
analyzing the country's immigration trends. According to
the MFA, the GOL issued 339,303 visas in 2004. Citizens
from the following countries accounted for nearly 98% of
visas issued:

Russia - 59.9%
Belarus - 24.6%
Ukraine - 6.1%
Kazakhstan - 5.2%
Kyrgyzstan - 1.5%
Moldova - 0.5%


5. Although not including most European and American
visitors (who do not require visas),these statistics
indicate that Lithuania remains an especially attractive
destination for foreigners from the former Soviet Union.

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Foreign Workers
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6. Increasing emigration following Lithuania's 2004
accession to the European Union has forced the country's
employers to turn increasingly to foreign workers to fill
in the gaps in the local economy (Refs B-D).


7. The Lithuanian Labor Exchange is responsible for
approving work permits for foreigners seeking employment in
Lithuania. Through the first three quarters of 2005, the
GOL issued 1077 temporary work permits and refused only 55.
The number of issued permits has consistently increased
over the last several years. In 2005, 95% of Lithuania's
temporary foreign workers are men, and 67% are between 25-
44 years old. The vast majority (82.9%) of foreign workers
are employed in Vilnius or the bustling port city of
Klaipeda. The following is a breakdown of foreign
employment by sector:

Manufacturing - 59%
Services - 15%
Construction - 13%
Transportation - 10%


8. Lithuania has signed bilateral agreements with Russia
and Ukraine that allow citizens of these two countries some
additional working rights. The Labor Exchange has issued
the most temporary work permits in 2005 to citizens of the
following countries:

Ukraine - 35%
Belarus - 26%
Russia - 12%
Romania - 12%

9. The following are a few of the largest categories of
foreigners who have obtained work permits in 2005:

Occupation (Nationality) % of Total
-------------- -------------- --------------

Ship/dock workers (Ukraine, Belarus, Russia) 33%
Specialized welders (Belarus, Romania) 12%
Truck drivers (Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Georgia) 9%
Chefs (China, Turkey, Armenia, the Philippines) 7%
Chemical/aviation engineers (Russia, Belarus, USA) 6%


10. Xiaomin Feng and Hongwei Zheng, a Chinese couple who
have lived in Lithuania for 8 years, are a true success
uccess
story among Lithuania's immigrants. Invited to Lithuania
by an uncle who owned a Chinese restaurant in the city of
Kaunas, Xiaomin and Hongwei quickly began developing a
chain of successful restaurants - they now own and run four
in two different cities. Hongwei described their first
years, without any knowledge of the language or culture, as
truly "scary." Now very much integrated into Lithuanian
society, the pair enjoy their lives away from China and
have no intentions to return anytime soon. But the
Lithuanian immigration system, according to Hongwei,
discourages permanent immigration, forcing the couple to
acquire residency permits yearly and denying any
possibility to become Lithuanian citizens.

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Integration
--------------


11. Most immigrants to Lithuania, perhaps due to their
small numbers, appear to integrate fairly well into
society. Exceptions exist, however, most notably several
geographical pockets of ethnic Russians who have failed to
integrate despite lengthy periods of residency.


12. The Lithuanian government has established a national
integration program "to promote national minorities to
integrate into the society of Lithuania, to foster
tolerance among the public, to prevent discrimination,
seclusion, and hatred on an ethnic basis." The Department
of National Minorities, which takes the lead in
implementing the integration program, focuses its efforts
on minority groups present in Lithuania for at least 20
years. The program works primarily with Lithuania's
domestic Roma community, not recently arriving immigrants.
The Ministry of Social Security and Labor, meanwhile,
provides some integration assistance to asylum seekers but
very little to ordinary immigrants. Lithuania grants
refugee status to only a handful of asylum seekers, and
provides temporary social protection to 200-500 people,
each year.


13. Oleg Beloborodov, a Moldovan construction worker in the
Vilnius region, is a positive example of the integration
process. Oleg's occupation allows him to communicate
perfectly well on the job in Russian. Yet, in the year
since his first arrival, Oleg has begun to speak some
Lithuanian, and he is already a popular figure among
Lithuanians in the Lithuanian Baseball League.

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Political Influence
--------------


14. Immigrants in Lithuania have little political influence
compared with immigrant communities in other European
countries. Ethnic Poles and Russians, themselves usually
long-term Lithuanian citizens, have had only limited
success in organizing themselves politically. The Polish
Electoral Action, an electoral coalition, united Polish,
Russian, and Belarusian politicians for the October 2004
elections with hopes of creating the first ethnic faction
in Parliament. The effort failed, although Voldemar
Tomashevski, leader of the group and prominent Polish
politician, did succeed in reaching Parliament.


15. Former immigrants, and others from ethnic minority
groups, have gone on to hold high political positions,
demonstrating society's general acceptance of minority
figures. Viktor Uspaskich, controversial but popular
leader of Parliament's leading political party, moved to
Lithuania from Russia in the mid-1980s. Vaclav Stankevic,
born in Belarus, is the chairman of Parliament's NATO
Affairs Commission and as MP was a champion of Lithuania's
NATO accession.

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Religion
--------------


16. Lithuania's immigrant population has done little to
disturb the country's religious balance. Lithuania remains
an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country with very small
religious minorities. According to the most recent survey
data, 79% of residents are Roman Catholic, 4.1% Russian
Orthodox, 0.8% Old Believer, and 9.5% are nonreligious.
Lithuania's ethnic Polish minority reinforces the Roman
Catholic dominance. With countries of the former Soviet
Union serving as the primary source of immigration,
immigrants and temporary foreign workers in Lithuania are
predominantly Russian Orthodox and nonreligious. The
Orthodox Church remains an uncontroversial force, given its
long history and physical presence (in the form of
attractive onion-domed churches) in Lithuania, while
decades of living in the Soviet Union have left most
Lithuanians comfortable with agnostics.


17. Muslims remain a statistically miniscule portion of the
population (less than 3,000 total, according to the latest
census). Most of Lithuania's Muslims are from the Tatar
community, which settled in the region over 600 years ago,
practice a very moderate form of Islam, and are considered
part of mainstream Lithuanian society. Some foreign
Muslims, notably young students, have begun to fill the
country's few mosques. Not yet exposed to significant
immigration from the Muslim world, however, Lithuania is
one European country where Islam and religious extremism
(Ref A) remain largely abstract concepts.

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Language
--------------


18. Almost all Lithuanian adults speak fluent Russian, and
Russian-speaking immigrants from the former Soviet Union
therefore have an advantage in the Lithuanian job market.
However, language use in Lithuania is changing drastically,
with younger generations learning English and other
European languages rather than Russian. Increased
immigration may help perpetuate the use of Russian in this
former Soviet outpost.

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Comment: A Naive System
--------------


19. The GOL has designed an immigration system to allow for
a limited influx of foreigners to fill the gaps for
specific needs in the Lithuanian labor market. Permanent
immigration is envisioned primarily for family of
Lithuanian citizens only and not for "your tired, your
poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."


20. This system has worked well to date, bolstering
Lithuania's growing economy without disturbing the
country's social and cultural balance. As Lithuanians
continue to leave their country in startling numbers, and
as Lithuania continues its impressive economic growth,
however, it is likely that immigration pressures will
continue to grow.


21. (SBU) Zygimantas Pavilionis, Director of the MFA's EU
Department and long-time observer of European politics,
noted during discussion of Turkey's bid for EU membership
that Lithuanians have thus far not faced a large immigrant
population with drastically different cultural values.
Becoming a full member of Europe would therefore require a
gradual "education period," he opined, for Lithuanians to
become accustomed to larger-scale immigration. While
immigrants continue to play a positive role, Lithuania will
inevitably have to tackle the challenges of immigration
that today beset Western Europe.

KELLY