Growing economy to draw more Latvians home from abroad: Latvian gov't

The Economics Ministry of Latvia on Wednesday said Latvia's economic growth would motivate more of its nationals to return to the country from abroad.

Without presenting specific numbers, the ministry's representative Olegs Baranovs said the government planned to support emigrants who want to return and work in Latvia or who want to maintain closer ties with Latvia from their countries of residence.

"The goal is not to provide solutions to all the chronic issues in Latvia, although we see migration is largely driven by economic factors," Baranovs said.

The trend of Latvians emigrating, which peaked during the economic crisis, has been steadily slowing. But the number of immigrants arriving in Latvia still remains nearly two times lower than the number of people leaving Latvia.

Latvia's population of two million last year decreased by 8,000 due to the negative migration rate.

The Economics Ministry expects the migration rate to even out sometime around 2020 if current trends continue.

Representatives of the Ministries of Economics, Culture and Foreign Affairs told lawmakers that the low wages employees receive in Latvia are the main reason hampering remigration and that the minimum wage in Latvia should be increased to the level of Europe's developed countries to remove that obstacle.

Other issues holding back remigration include difficulties finding good jobs in Latvia, limited housing availability, and the lack of information about support mechanisms available to people moving back to Latvia.

Assessing the Remigration Plan for 2013-2016, members of the parliament's human rights and public affairs committee criticized it as too fragmented and requiring the involvement of too many state institutions.

Latvian lawmakers said the government's plans to lure back emigrants were "too vague and ineffective." Endit