Hey, being stateless isn’t that bad…right?

Would you believe it if I told you that 101, 250 people in this world are stateless? Well, would you be surprised if I told you that there are at least 101, 250 of them in Estonia alone?[1] As a United States citizen, we are not often confronted of the important international problem of statelessness and the consequences that result. However, newly reinstated nations such as the Baltic state of Estonia have implemented various naturalization laws that have made it difficult for some to become citizens based on ones spoken language, ethnicity, and previous work experience.

The targets for statelessness have and still are the Russian people who have inhabited the land of Estonia since 1940-1990. The Baltic States have always had a strained relationship with their mother country of Russia during their times as members of the U.S.S.R. In fact, since the Baltic States were thought of as so anti-Soviet it became a priority of Russians to kick Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians out of their homes while Russians, Ukrainians, and Georgians established cities, industries, and communities in the former homes of the ethnic Baltic population. Between 1934-1959 over 100,000 Estonians were displaced out of their native country in order to make room for other U.S.S.R. members who wished to inhibit that territory[2].

Obviously, because of this mistreatment, the Estonians felt quite scorned that their culture, language, and heritage was being replaced by the Russian’s way of life. The Estonians felt provoked by the Russians since between 1934 and 1989 they experienced more than a 25% drop-off in their ethnic Estonian population while the other Baltic state of Lithuania remained at around the same amount of ethnic Lithuanians from the 1930s to modern day[3].

This preempted the Estonian parliament, the Riikigoku, to make laws at the beginning of their independence, during the 1990s, that would discriminate against those that were not descendants of those that lived in Estonia previous to 1940, which applied to less then half of the population at the time[4]. Another way to claim citizenship was if one had a Congress of Estonia membership card, meaning that they supported the independence of an Estonian republic while it was under Soviet control, leading another 27.4% in 1992 to claim citizenship.[5].

Estonians were looking to build up their own culture, and in order to do that they denied Russians citizenship by giving intense language tests that were needed for naturalization. These tests are similar to the literacy tests given to non-whites during segregation in the United States which prevented non-whites from votong. Since many Russians did not have the education, money, or time to learn the Estonian language it became difficult for them to pass these citizenship tests. Many Russians were able to get by in their daily lives with certain key phrases and knowledge of the Estonian language but were not proficient enough in the language to pass a citizenship test, leading 7.5% of the current population, mainly Russians to be stateless.

Though important institutions (The European Union and United States) realize the harshness of these citizenship standards, Estonia and the other Baltic states have garnered both de jure and de facto standing through some loopholes[6]. Estonia was able to get the recognition of its nation and the legalities of its citizenship laws by declaring that they were absolved under the U.S.S.R through illegal means, meaning that they are not successor states but re-established ones that can continue to use laws dated before the 1940s. Both of these huge institutions, the United States and European Union, recognized the legality of these laws, leading the Estonians to never view this problem and address it more head on to incorporate and allow for more residents to become citizens.

Strangely enough though, the stateless people of Estonia are protected almost as good as the citizens of Estonia under legal clauses. Estonian stateless people enjoy health care, tax benefits, protected housing, protection from expulsion and voting in local and municipal elections (but not national ones). They even get the free mobility to move in to the countries of the European Union and Russia without visas, allowing for arguably more benefits than Estonian citizens receive since they cannot freely travel to Russia[7]. So why is it a big deal that they are not citizens?

This is because a state can get rid of you at any time as the rules are set in place by the states, not the stateless. One day the parliament/government of Estonia can decide that the stateless do not deserve health care, the right to vote, tax benefits, and the many other luxuries that other stateless people in other countries do not enjoy. For now though, the Estonian stateless residents seem so disillusioned with the process of naturalization. This is due to the vigorous language tests that many fail to pass since they cannot afford the time or money that is necessary to become fluent in Estonian, a language not related to the Slavic language Russian.

Since Estonia has now been fully integrated within the European Union and is dependent on the Euro why is it that the European Union does not impose more sanctions on Estonia that would make their neutralization laws friendlier to people that aren’t native Estonian speakers. The European Union has been building a degree of power that in the future would increase its economic and political power in the countries that are in it and around it. As of now the European Union has only advised the Baltic nations to make certain policies that would create easier citizenship and less statelessness. However, many of the countries that are members of the EU still have large communities of state less people in them[8] (for example the Scania of Sweden, the Hungarian minority of Romania, and the Sanjak).

Right now, the European Union is lightly influencing countries wanting to be apart of the EU by making sure they enact certain policies. In the future, the EU can impose even stricter rules that would make staying in the EU based upon meeting certain political and economic criteria like immigration laws, naturalization laws, etc. The European Union has implemented laws that keep in mind these stateless members of countries. In 2003 the Tampere Council addressed these stateless residents by giving long-term residents (those who have stayed in that territory for more than five years) the ability to move wherever in the European Union without a visa to work just like all other citizens[9]. This is significant as it creates more job opportunities for those who may be struggling to find any at the moment because they are unable to speak the Estonian language.

In short, the answer to the original heading of this briefing is that there is no direct harm right now by being stateless in Estonia at this present time. However, who knows what the future holds and what conditions for these stateless people if Estonia’s laws become less liberal towards the stateless. In addition, we have to recognize who these stateless people are. They are compromised mostly of Russians who are not able to pickup the Estonian language. This means that many of the jobs in the public and private sector, which require a vast knowledge of Estonian beyond competency, will not be attainable to the stateless Russian population. They then become the fringe of Estonian society, members who cannot get a fixed income that pays for housing, their children, and education. The indirect consequences of being a stateless member of society hardly seem attractive to those who would want to live a life where they are apart of a state, a part of society whose function is to protect and serve you. The question that I still wonder is how these Russian stateless people have become so complacent in trusting of the Estonian government that still harbors negative feelings towards their ethnic background.

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[1] http://blog.soros.org/2010/08/stateless-but-not-right-less-the-debate-over-citizenship-in-estonia/ According to a 2008 census of the Republic of Estonia

[2] See Appendix 2, Table I in Marju Lauristin and Peeter Vihalemm (eds) Return to the Western World: Cultural and Political Perspectives on the Estonian Post-Communist Transition (Tartu: Tartu University Press, 1997) pp. 305–306.

[3] Data on ethnic composition of the Baltic States is found in Ineta Ziemele, ‘The role of state contin- uity and human rights in matters of nationality of the Baltic States’, in Tavalds Jundzis (ed.) The Baltic States at Historical Crossroads (Riga: Academy of Sciences, 1998) p. 260.

[4] See Ineta Ziemele, ‘The role of state continuity and human rights in matters of nationality of the Baltic States’, in Tavalds Jundzis (ed.) The Baltic States at Historical Crossroads (Riga: Academy of Sciences, 1998) p. 257.

[5] Soysal, Yasemin, Limits of Citizenship (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).

[6] See Aleksei Semjonov, ‘Citizenship Legislation, Minority Rights and Integration in Estonia’, paper presented for the ECMI Baltic Seminar ‘Minorities and Majorities in Estonia: Problems of Integration at the Threshold of the EU’ (1998) p. 7.

[7] O’Leary, Siofra, European Union Citizenship: The Options for Reform (London: Institute for Public

Policy Research, 1996) pp. 13–14.

[8] http://www.unpo.org/members.php

[9] O’Leary, Siofra, European Union Citizenship: The Options for Reform (London: Institute for Public

Policy Research, 1996) pp. 13–14.