Expert: Lithuanian government should have started thinking about migration decades ago

In an interview with a Lithuanian TV channel, the new Prime Minister of Lithuania, Gintautas Paluckas, said immigration is now a necessity for his country, rather than a choice. Lithuania, according to him, needs immigration because there are jobs available, but manpower is scarce. But the cultural compatibility, according to Mr. Paluckas, is also important, because major differences can lead to problems. Political scientist Aleksei Belyaev, the Dean of the Journalism Faculty at the Belarusian State University, commented on his words to Alfa Radio.

Hoisted on their own petard

“Lithuania is a xenophobic country, incredibly hostile to any newcomers. It all started with fostering russophobia even before the USSR fell. Hatred for the Russians who allegedly came and took everything was disseminated across the Lithuanian society. A long-lasting policy of displacement followed, when they closed down Russian speaking schools and kindergartens, banned education in the Russian language, etc. Some Russians left as a result, but as it turned out, those were the most competent professionals. The Lithuanian population started declining. With the borders open, young people were leaving for countries where they could earn more money. The most important thing is that they are not coming back, every opinion poll and research says that. That’s why Lithuania now has a problem,” the expert explained.

Ukrainian refugees

Lithuania accepted a lot of refugees from Ukraine, but they don’t really want to work there, Mr. Belyaev believes. Their preferred destination point is Europe where they can get welfare without investing anything into the local economy. Now, Lithuania is among the European countries that are the least friendly towards Ukrainian refugees: their number in the official registry went down 43 percent in the past year.

The transit point

“Restrictions also apply to Belarusians, those who chose to go there because of the so-called political reasons. They are being deported, their residence permits are cancelled, so they have no chance to stay there. But we can’t say Lithuania is welcoming refugees from Africa, Syria, Iraq, or the Middle East with open arms either. To be fair, they don’t particularly want to go there themselves, because the social welfare in Lithuania is much less generous than in Germany, France, or the UK. For them, Lithuania is just a transit point on the way to those countries. As a result, Lithuania is bleeding out young people, productive workers, and competent professionals. There’s no one to replace them. That’s why the new Prime Minister is now saying officially that they have to do something to revive the national economy”, Mr Belyaev continued.

The Islamic Europe

“Look at what's happening in Europe. Many European countries are, for all intents and purposes, Islamic now (the most popular name in the UK now is Mohammed, for instance. Omar is the second most popular, with some British name being the third. It has been like that for a few years now). Muslims make up increasingly greater shares of their populations. Muslim communities buy out empty English churches, turn them into mosques, and announce all over the Internet that they are displacing the British people. Look at Sweden: they used to be pretty tolerant towards refugees, allowing everyone in. Today, there are whole migrant enclaves there that the government has no control over. They refuse to learn Swedish, or integrate into the local society; they are instead turning Sweden into a conglomerate of isolated cities they consider Islamic. So the Lithuanian government definitely has a cause for worry. They fear that if a wave of migrants like that crashes into them, they soon won’t have a country. That’s why governments in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are between the rock and the hard place. Unfortunately, there are no good options available to them. You can’t close your borders completely and cut yourself off any available workforce. You can’t expect skilled engineers from Germany or France to move to Lithuania. But welcoming a wave of migrants who refuse to integrate into your society leads to internal social conflicts. We feel for Lithuania, but their government started paying attention to that problem far too late. They should have done that decades ago,” concluded the expert.

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