U.S. allows Latvian guest workers

Latvians Online | 

Latvia is among new countries from which employers may temporarily bring workers to America under H-2A and H-2B visas, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced Jan. 14. The designation is valid for one year.

Under the H-2A program, employers are able to bring foreign nationals to the U.S. to fill temporary agricultural jobs. The H-2B program is for non-agricultural jobs.

Estonia and Lithuania also are on the list. Latvia and Estonia are among 15 countries added to the guest worker list for the first time this year, according to the USCIS announcement.

The additions were made by the Department of Homeland Security in consultation with the Department of State. In all, 53 countries are on the list for this year.

To qualify for the programs, according to USCIS, the job must be of a temporary or seasonal nature, the employer must show that not enough U.S. workers are available to do the work, and the employer has to show that employing foreign workers will not adversely affect wages of U.S. workers.

53rd Arts Festival shows Latvians ‘down under’ still going strong

Daina Grosa | 

Jauktais koris

Choirs from all around Australia perform during the concert “Svētki dziesmai,” part of the 53rd Australian Latvian Arts Festival. (Photo by Daina Gross)

As the Latvian choristers filed up on stage you couldnt stop pinching yourself. It was just after Christmas, just under 30 degrees Celsius, quite pleasant for this time of year. Latvia itself was covered by a thick, woolly blanket of snow. Winter had well and truly set in, ready for the long haul.

Here in the Antipodes, summer had only just poked out its nose and the sweltering heat that will surface soon was still only a vicious rumour. It was time for the Australian Latvian Arts Festival (Austrālijas latviešu Kultūras dienas).

Up on the stage, each choir member had their own, freshly ironed, individually fitted national costume. Each costume, representing different regions of Latvia, was either lovingly handmade by its wearer or specially purchased for occasions such as this. The choir members came from the different states of Australia, yet every one carried a tiny part of Latvia.

As they continued to file onto the stage—some finding it easy to move, others needing some assistance—one wondered what each chorister was thinking as they made their way to their position. Every person had their own reason for being here. Some were born in Latvia 70-odd years ago and moved to Australia after the war. Some were descendants of the Latvian refugees. Some moved here from Latvia a year or two ago. Each individual on stage had some affiliation with Latvia—their homeland, their fatherland, the land of their forefathers. For some it could even be the homeland of their spouse.

Latvians have come to Australia at various times for different reasons over the past century. Many have blended into mainstream Australian society and have little to do with their homeland. However, there are pockets of Latvians, as well as individuals throughout Australia, who are proud of their heritage and wish to celebrate their culture. This is possible at the biennial Australian Latvian Arts Festival, held alternately in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.

This festival, held Dec. 26-Jan. 1 in Melbourne, was the 53rd of its kind. In previous years festivals have also been held in Brisbane, Perth, Hobart and Canberra. Not only does the festival showcase Latvian singing and dancing, this year’s events also included an art exhibition, a theatre performance, a children’s day and market, a public lecture, two youth variety performances, and a few other meetings and events.

With dwindling numbers in the community, some people might wonder if the festival is still worthwhile or relevant. After witnessing this year’s festival you certainly get the impression that it still has a future, and not a faltering or waning one at that.

All performances were sold out. The organisers were primarily in their 40s and 50s—a changing of the guard. The organisers aimed at attracting an audience that did not necessarily need to understand Latvian for many of the events. The atmosphere was welcoming, especially during the market day, where for some Australians of Latvian descent this was their first encounter with things Latvian. The ladies auxiliary at the Latvian House took in record earnings.

The festival organisers had involved big-name local talent from the world of the arts: playwright Jānis Balodis and artist Imants Tillers, famous and popular Latvian conductors Ints Teterovskis and Agita Ikauniece, as well as the music ensemble Tango Sin Quinto from Latvia.

An innovative and brave move was a rejuvenation of the mixed choir. Choristers were truly multi-generational, from primary schoolchildren to ladies and gentlemen aged 75-plus years. This proved to the community that it is still possible to gather together local Latvians with minimal opportunities to rehearse and attain a high standard for a non-professional choir—and disproving the absolute necessity for imported choirs from Latvia.

The other new event was the extension of the choir concert after-party to a massed singalong open to everyone, much like the singalongs that have become a regular feature after the Latvian Song Festival at Mežaparks in Rīga. With such an overwhelming response to this event it would be a shame if this was not included in future Arts Festivals.

The Melbourne Latvian House had also undergone significant changes, bringing some of the tired spaces in the building into the 21st century. The transformation of the front courtyard of the house into an outdoor café and concert space was also a success, proving that every corner of the property can be utilised efficiently. The renovations to the house will be of lasting benefit to the Melbourne Latvian community for years to come.

This Arts Festival is proof that the baton has truly been passed on to the next generation—and that there is nothing to fear in this. The children of Latvian refugees, together with more recent émigrés have shown that they have the vision, talent and creativity to put together a festival to be proud of. New events as well as the sprucing up of traditional events to give them a more contemporary and emotive feel have opened up the Arts Festival to a new world of possibilities. May the committee of the next Arts Festival continue on this exciting new road!

The Australian Latvian Arts Festival in 2010 is proof of the resilience and pride of Latvians living outside Latvia the world over. With so many Latvians leaving Latvia in recent years one can only hope they end up in communities such as this, get involved, find their place and—despite the predicament they find themselves in needing to leave Latvia for economic reasons—contribute with their talents and knowledge to cherishing the Latvian spirit.

Daina Gross is editor of Latvians Online. An Australian-Latvian she is also a migration researcher at the University of Latvia, PhD from the University of Sussex, formerly a member of the board of the World Federation of Free Latvians, author and translator/ editor/ proofreader from Latvian into English of an eclectic mix of publications of different genres.

2010 was turning point in Latvian politics

Uldis Ozoliņš | 

The year 2011 in Latvian politics begins with more hope but also more intrigue than the gloomy situation of 12 months ago. The Saeima elections in October signalled significant changes in Latvia’s political architecture, against the background of Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis’ continued and doggedly determined course of paying off debts and bringing Latvia’s economy back to growth.

The realignment of political parties was a major feature of 2010.

A year ago, the coalition led by Dombrovksis suffered repeated bouts of destabilisation. When the formerly leading People’s Party (Tautas partija) left the coalition in March, it left Dombrovskis with a minority government, but interestingly one that had relatively little trouble surviving until October.

Instead of helping its public profile, the move resulted in the People’s Party desperately fighting for its survival. The party continued to plummet in the polls and eventually needed to seek an alliance with Ainārs Šlesers’ First Party of Latvia (Latvijas Pirmā partija) to be able to guarantee even reaching the 5 percent of votes required to gain representation in the Saeima. Their new creation, the hypocritically named For a Good Latvia! (Par labu Latviju!) just managed to scrape back at the elections, a humiliating comedown for these parties which before the election controlled one-third of all deputies.

Such a consolidation of parties was also achieved elsewhere. In March the three groupings closest to Dombrovskis’ government joined forces to form Unity (Vienotība). This was a combination of New Era (Jaunais laiks), its breakaway Citizens’ Union (Pilsoniskā savienība), and the Society for A Different Politics (Sabiedrība citai politikai)—itself a breakaway from the People’s Party.

Not to be outdone, the nationalist party For Fatherland and Freedom (Tēvzemei un brīvībai / LNNK) found itself also slipping in the polls, and joined an alliance with the newer, much brasher and more strident All for Latvia! (Visu Latvijai!) to form the National Alliance (Nacionālā apvienība).

A second major theme for 2010 was the continued rise of the Harmony Centre (Saskaņas centrs).

This party, heavily backed by Latvia’s Russian voters, had significant success as the largest party in the 2009 Rīga municipal elections, where its leader Nīls Ušakovs was installed as mayor. In the ratings throughout 2010, Harmony Centre almost always came in as the largest party, usually leading its nearest rival Unity by several crucial percentage points. This pointed to the distinct possibility of Harmony Centre being the largest party in the Saeima, which rang alarm bells through the much more fragmented Latvian parties.

The surprise election result

Yet the election of Oct. 2 did not bring a Harmony Centre victory. Instead, Unity managed to mobilise voters and scored a narrow but significant victory. In the 100-seat Saeima, Unity now controls 33 seats; Harmony Centre, 29; the Union of Greens and Farmers (Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība), 22; the National Association, 8; and For a Good Latvia!, 8.

As another significant outcome, the long-established and much-hated Soviet imperialist party For Human Rights in a United Latvia (Par cilvēku tiesībām vienotā Latvijā) gained only 1.4 percent of the vote and failed for the first time to get representation in the Saeima.

With this result Dombrovskis was asked once more to form a coalition government, only the second time in Latvian history that an outgoing prime minister before a Saeima election is also the prime minister after that election. Yet the process was not easy.

An intriguing period ensued with Dombrovskis asking Harmony Centre to consider joining a coalition, a move that surprised even many in his own party. However, the offer came with strings attached: Dombrovskis wanted to have Harmony Centre take an unequivocal stand on some key issues, including recognising as a fact Latvia’s occupation under Soviet rule, and other points of Latvian-Russian disagreement where it had often showed itself to be equivocal. Angered by such demands to make these ideological commitments, Harmony Centre declined to join the coalition. For some, this was a chance gone begging, the chance to have a coalition that combined the leading Latvian- and Russian-oriented parties that would take responsibility for the difficult economic decisions that lay ahead; for others, this was seen as averting a dangerous move to bring people of dubious loyalty into the government.

For Fatherland and Freedom had also been a member of Dombrovskis’ outgoing coalition government, but its alliance with the more radical All for Latvia! was seen as taking the government potentially too far to the right, so it also was not taken on board. Instead, Unity finally formed a coalition with the other significant winner in the elections, the Union of Greens and Farmers, which had increased its representation in the parliament from 19 to 22 seats, and which had always played the quieter partner role in the coalitions before. It is now this two-party coalition with 55 Saeima deputies that forms government.

The bitterness of the defeat for the For a Good Latvia! party has caused it to become extremely active in the opposition. The first destabilisation effort was made in November with an attempt to unseat Foreign Minister Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis. We are likely to see more such destabilisation attempts in 2011 as the opposition targets ministers one by one.

Under Dombrovskis, the first signs of Latvia’s economic recovery are apparent, with encouraging export performance and achieved revenue targets. However, the demands of the International Monetary Fund and other creditors for structural reforms and cutting of budgets means that we will continue to see internal deflation. Living standards will continue to drop. However, they are expected to reach their nadir in 2011, with a rise in economic growth expected from mid-2011. The election result has been widely seen as confirming that Latvian voters are willing to put up with this policy line for the sake of long-term improvement.

Foreign affairs

In terms of foreign relations, 2010 also brought some significant advances, with President Valdis Zatlers’ long-delayed visit to Moscow bringing some immediate gains. The endless lines of trucks at some border crossings into Russia began to be processed more quickly. More broadly, however, the visit was marked by a neutral and business-like tone, with Russia not pressing its traditional hectoring demands on citizenship and language issues.

One aspect of foreign policy became known to the general public in December through WikiLeaks: a cable confirmed that the NATO defense alliance had laid down contingency plans for action in the case of the Baltic states being attacked. These are contingency plans that the Baltics had long asked for, but which NATO previously had never formulated. More publicly in May, in a significant win for Latvia, the European Court of Human Rights upheld Latvia’s right to try former Soviet partisan and self-proclaimed anti-fascist fighter Vassily Kononov for war crimes in 1944, when he had supervised the execution of nine civilians in a small Latvian village.

* * *

Several years of still painful economic rectification lie ahead for Latvia, but the first signs at least are that the government continues to enjoy support, and that it can fight off attempts to destabilise it. 2010 will be seen as a turning point in Latvian politics.