Integration of beneficiaries of international protection in the Lithuanian labour market: policies and practices

Abstract

Since its independence in 1990, Lithuania has experienced, in common with its Baltic neighbours Estonia and Latvia, a veritable exodus of people, with, according to the latest statistics, an average of 30,000 people leaving the country every year. This substantial emigration following independence has seen many nationals moving to western and northern European countries, resulting in demographic challenges and structural changes. Following Lithuania’s accession to the EU in 2004, the exodus of nationals reached new heights. Together with a growing emigration trend, new migration patterns were identified as the demographic shortfall, combined with labour shortages, triggered immigration from third countries. Lithuania has therefore become an attractive country for migrant workers (from Ukraine in particular), while asylum applications have remained stable and low. Since 1997, when the Lithuanian Parliament ratified the Geneva Convention (1951) and its Protocol (1967), migrants have been able to apply for asylum in Lithuania. In 2004, the Geneva Convention, its Protocol and the Law on the Status of Refugees (1997) were assembled in a single document, the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens (Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania, 2004). By ratifying the Geneva Convention, Lithuania legally committed itself to (i) protecting asylumseekers and refugees and (ii) providing this group of people with ‘adequate’ conditions for integration. Such conditions include durable solutions, notably legal, economic and sociocultural ones. The legal element of refugee integration concerns rights and entitlements equal to those enjoyed by citizens of the host country: freedom of movement, access to education, the labour market, social support, health care, housing, property and family reunification. Beyond legal rights, the economic and sociocultural elements of life are also part of integration, ranging from self-reliance, sustainable livelihoods and the chance to contribute to economic life to social capital, networks and resources that are embedded in local communities and based on the principles of nondiscrimination and non-exploitation (Da Costa, 2006). These three solutions ideally help refugees and asylum-seekers to settle in the country permanently by facilitating their inclusion. In some Central and Eastern European countries and in the Baltic countries in particular, however, permanent settlement and inclusion of beneficiaries of international protection is a still challenging process. This is because a significant number of asylum-seekers, as well as ‘spontaneously arrived’ and ‘relocated’ refugees have already left Lithuania (as well as Latvia and Estonia) (Reuters, 2016; NewEurope, 2016). This process, called