Latvia’s integration secretariat has renewed a call to Latvians and Livonians abroad to participate in a survey about repatriation. The survey, coordinated by the Rīga-based consulting firm SIA Aksedo, is focused on Latvians and Livonians in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Russia and the United States.
The consulting firm seeks at least 1,000 responses, according to Dana Heiberga of the Secretariat of the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration Affairs (Īpasu uzdevumu ministra sabiedrības integrācijas lietās sekretāriats, or ĪUMSILS).
The survey aims at learning about respondents’ ties to Latvia, their opinions about the image of Latvia and their thoughts on barriers to repatriation, the secretariat announced in a May 21 press release. Also addressed in the survey are questions about maintenance of Latvian and Livonian identity abroad, plus how institutions in Latvia might support that maintenance.
The integration secretariat expects to use the survey results to help it develop programs for supporting ethnic Latvian and Livonian communities abroad, as well as to work on policies to aid those who do wish to repatriate.
SIA Aksedo was awarded an LVL 8,750 contract to complete the survey. ĪUMSILS asks anyone contacted by the consulting firm to cooperate with the survey, Heiberga said.
The survey also may be completed online, either in English at aksedo.e-formas.lv/forms/381 or in Latvian at aksedo.e-formas.lv/forms/370.
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This survey does not mention the biggest problem with Latvia – the government is controlled by kleptomaniacal oligarchs. I would love to live in Latvia if the oligarchs were locked in jail and I think that thousands of other Western Latvians would agree.