In the discussion on the reception of Ukrainian refugees in the Baltic-Nordic region countries, Latvia’s policy appears to be solid and consistent. In this blog, HROMADA member Oksana Žabko explains details of Latvia’s policy applied, briefly outlined in a previous blog.
Since the restoration of independence in 1991, Latvia has not been an attractive option for asylum seekers. Although consistent with general EU regulations, their support at national and local levels has also been limited, with certain integration-enhancing activities delegated to selected non-governmental organisations. The situation changed significantly with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. The number of Ukrainian citizens who, thus, arrived in Latvia exceeded, at times, the number of other asylum seekers who arrived in Latvia to this date. According to the Ministry of the Interior, as of the beginning of 2024, more than 32,000 Ukrainian citizens were living in Latvia, while more than 61,000 Ukrainians had been registered and issued relevant documents to remain in the country. The difference between these figures results from the free movement opportunities that Ukrainians retain, so their stay in Latvia is flexible. Ukrainian citizens could enter, register, stay, or decide to return to Ukraine as well as move on to other countries. Although specific data on the demographic profile of Ukrainians living in Latvia is not publicly available, they are mainly women with children and senior family members.
Special provision applied for welcoming Ukrainian refugees
Latvia’s previous reception and support procedure for asylum seekers proved ineffective in accommodating such a large number of refugees. Thus, on 3 March 2022, the Parliament adopted a law regarding supporting Ukrainian civilians in Latvia. The law established the procedure for Latvian authorities to support Ukrainian refugees in meeting their basic needs and providing opportunities (employment, social services, education) while they stay in Latvia.
For the first time, the reception and support policy was organised in a comprehensive way, involving a wide range of stakeholders, government and local government authorities, non-governmental organisations, as well as natural and legal persons who had not previously been considered as a resource for the provision of support to refugees. Although Ukrainians arrived in Latvia via both the eastern Latvian border (through Russia) and the southern Latvian border (through the Ukrainian neighbouring countries and Lithuania), their major crossroad was the Latvian capital of Riga. On 7 March 2022, the Single Support Centre for Ukrainians was opened in Riga, where all basic services were available under a one-stop shop principle – registration for a shelter (housing), residence permits on humanitarian grounds, application for social assistance (including immediate reception of food parcels). The centre quickly outgrew its original location due to high demand for its services. After moving to larger premises, it expanded its offerings to include a free canteen, a babysitting room, and registration for public kindergartens and schools. The centre also provided a registration to family doctor and reception of psychologist consultations, and organized job fairs. Staff from both the national government and Riga municipality ran the Support Centre for Ukrainians. Volunteers played a crucial role too, helping to manage the flow of people, assist with paperwork (such as applications for support or residence permits), and provide childcare and kitchen support.
Revising various housing opportunities
When it comes to housing, there is a significant difference between the reception of general asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees. As a general rule, asylum seekers must stay in a dedicated accommodation centre, called “Mucenieki”, during their application’s processing and then find their own accommodation on the open market without any financial support. In contrast, no special rules indicated where Ukrainian refugees should stay when they arrived in Latvia. They could choose whether to stay with relatives or other known people in Latvia or apply for support as described below.
Significant resources from the state, local authorities, private individuals, and businesses have been mobilised to provide housing for Ukrainian refugees. For those Ukrainians who did not have relatives or other previous contacts in Latvia to provide shelter, the State Fire and Rescue Service coordinated the allocation of temporary housing in hotels and guesthouses. Ukrainian refugees were housed on a free-of-charge basis, and the accommodation’s owner was compensated by the state. Since May 2022, anyone who provided housing to Ukrainians could receive this compensation, including their relatives. Currently and until 31 December 2024, Latvia maintains the regulation that housing for Ukrainian refugees is reimbursed for up to 120 days (100 EUR per month for the first person and 50 EUR for each other person in the family, but not more than EUR 300 for an entire family from Ukraine). Still, this support is continued on the same terms (the sum per month) if Ukrainian refugees have disabilities or are minors, retirees, or families with children under two years of age.
As the availability of accommodation in and around Riga was limited, the legal framework also introduced the distribution of Ukrainian refugees among Latvian municipalities. While this has encouraged municipalities to find and arrange vacant buildings (such as dormitories) to accommodate Ukrainian refugees, some of these premises have remained vacant because they are located in small municipalities with limited work opportunities. Although recent data is unavailable, as of 29 November 2022, 11,535 Ukrainian refugees have received housing provided by various municipalities in Latvia (incl. Riga).
The same rights as Latvian citizens to access various services
Regarding public (state-funded) healthcare services, Ukrainian refugees have the same rights as Latvian citizens who have paid their social insurance contributions. This covers the entire spectrum of public medical care, including emergency medical care, maternity care, family doctor and specialist services, hospital treatment, and rehabilitation services. An important exemption from the existing rules is the norm that Ukrainian refugees can purchase medicines for chronic diseases, except psychotropic drugs, based on a prescription issued in Ukraine.
With regard to social assistance, as part of the emergency assistance – and in addition to housing support mentioned above – Ukrainians could receive single allowance in a crisis situation (343 EUR per adult and 240 EUR per child in 2024), food and hygiene products parcels and minimum income benefit (137 EUR for first family member and 96 EUR for each next family member per month in 2024) for three months without income testing by contacting social services (in Riga, a branch of social services was located in the Support Centre). After the three-month period, the same conditions as for Latvian citizens (means-testing) apply for receiving social services and social assistance. Ukrainian refugees can use public childcare services (such as kindergartens) and enrol their children into a Latvian school of their choice.
Access and support for employment
To facilitate the employment of Ukrainian refugees, the government adopted a number of exceptions not applied to other refugees. While non-EU citizens typically face restrictions linked to a single employer, both general asylum seekers and Ukrainians are granted unrestricted employment rights. Uniquely for Ukrainians, employers (including state and municipal entities) can hire individuals without Latvian language skills, provided this does not hinder job performance. Furthermore, the government established favorable conditions for recognizing Ukrainian qualifications in regulated professions such as healthcare, education, sports, and pharmaceutical care. This allows these professionals to continue working in their fields. In this case, professionals in the relevant fields had to go through the procedure for temporary service providers, but the Latvian Medical Association provided additional support for recognising doctors’ qualifications (more information here).
Employers were encouraged to inform the State employment agency of available jobs for Ukrainian refugees. As a result, until the end of March 2022, 6,823 jobs were declared as open to Ukrainians, which was 19% of all open job offers of that time period; in April-June 2022, 4,228 job offers were provided for Ukrainians (13% of all vacancies). In the next months, the number of job offers decreased. Although jobs are still available for Ukrainians, they are being filled slowly for two reasons. First, the availability of Ukrainian labour has dried up. Secondly, some Ukrainian refugees living in Latvia cannot enter the labour market for other reasons (childcare, skills mismatch, or a long commute to the potential workplace) (Zabko, 2024, forthcoming).
The Support Centre for Ukrainians regularly organises and up to this data holds job fairs, where various employers offer jobs to Ukrainians in person. Everyone can meet several employers, ask questions about working conditions, and, if interested, agree on entry to work. This reduces the time spent looking for a job and gives confidence that these employers are reliable and trustworthy. In the past 24 job fairs, around 4,500 jobs have been offered to Ukrainian refugees. Around 100 companies have participated in the job fairs, and around 5,000 Ukrainians have participated.
To encourage Ukrainians to declare their employment, the Latvian government also offered a single employment (or self-employment) start-up allowance at the national minimum wage. This was 500 EUR in 2022, 620 EUR in 2023, and 700 EUR in 2024. According to State Employment Agency data, in 2022-2023, the single employment (or self-employment) start-up allowance was paid to 14,338 people (Zabko, 2024, forthcoming).
Despite abolishing the requirement to have an understanding of Latvian at work, various organisations offer free Latvian language training supported by public funding to facilitate the inclusion of Ukrainians in Latvian society. In 2022-2023, 9,556 Ukrainians attended Latvian language trainings. In addition to favourable conditions regarding the aforementioned areas, basic Latvian language skills entitle Ukrainian refugees to apply for a permanent residence permit after five years of living in the country.
A warm welcome, but hurdles remain
Welcoming Ukrainian refugees has been a new experience for the Latvian government, local authorities, and society. Overall, it demonstrated the ability of all parties involved to mobilise, coordinate, and cooperate in their activities to provide support to Ukrainian refugees. However, looking at the short-term results of the support policy, there are also some challenges, including those discussed in the previous blog. Currently, the most critical issue is supporting education for Ukrainian children.
Until now, Ukrainian parents living in Latvia had the right to choose whether their children continued their education in the Ukrainian education system remotely, enrolled in a Latvian school or engaged in both systems. However, enrollment in the Latvian school was not compulsory. The Latvian government planned to change this norm in September 2024 by obliging all Ukrainian children living in the country to attend a Latvian school. The key question here is whether Latvian teachers have enough know-how and institutional support to help Ukrainian children integrate and succeed. Nevertheless, despite plans to implement new rules by September, parliament failed to consider the required legal changes in June 2024. As a result, the situation remains unresolved.
For further reading: European Migration Network. Latvia (2023). Report on migration and asylum in Latvia. Reference year 2022.
References: Zabko, O. (2024, forthcoming). Contribution of displaced Ukrainians in addressing labour shortages in Latvia. Proceedings of the 2024 International Conference “Economic science for rural development”.
The work on this blog was supported by the research “Reception of migrants under conditions of uncertainty: governance and local level inclusion”, funded by the Latvian Council of Science (grant number: LZP-2023/1-0227).
