Estonia: UNDP report on integration
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 97 15:33:21 -0500
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
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Subject: Estonia: UNDP report on integration
From: MINELRES moderator \ Internet: ([email protected])
Original sender: Vello Pettai \ Internet: ([email protected])
Estonia: UNDP report on integration
UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FUNDS REPORT ON NON-ESTONIAN
INTEGRATION
The United Nations Development Program has released the final report of a 4-
month study on the integration of non-Estonians into Estonian society. In
May, the UNDP began financing an Estonian working group headed by the
prominent Estonian political scientist Rein Taagepera to develop a broad-
ranging scheme for non-Estonian integration.
In its original announcement, the UNDP noted that Estonian government policy
thusfar on integration had been too scattered between individual citizenship
, language, and education policies. There was no vision as to what kind of
society these and other policies were intended to create. As a result, the
working group was formed to come up with a possible conception, which could
be presented to the Estonian government as a set of recommendations for
consideration.
The 35-page report covers all aspects of non-Estonian integration: history,
politics, education, media, culture, economics and regional policy. Its
centerpiece is a type of integration "chain", which is supposed to help ease
Russian-speakers and other minorities in Estonian society. It begins with
information on Estonia for non-Estonians, which will help improve attitudes
and calm their fears. Better attitudes, in turn, should help encourage non-
Estonians to develop better Estonian-language abilities. Better language
skills, in turn, will improve their chances of getting Estonian citizenship.
Having Estonian citizenship, finally, will once again improve their
attitudes. It is this cycle of integration that the report envisions.
However, the report does not just focus on the need for non-Estonians to
adapt to their new minority status in Estonia. The report also notes that
Estonia, too, will have to adapt its integration policies if the process is
to work. For example, it states that Estonia should review its citizenship
policy with a view to its future in the European Union, since future events
may dictate a need to more rapidly naturalize the current 300,000-strong non
-citizen population than is currently happening. The report argues that in
the future, Estonians themselves may begin to look on the current non-
Estonian population as more akin to themselves than new immigrants may
appear once Estonia joins the EU. Thus it would only be logical that these
"native non-Estonians" be accorded citizenship at some point.
In terms of education policy, the report also calls on the government to
focus more attention on the re-training of teachers in Russian-language
schools, many of whom have been unable or unwilling to adapt to the new
circumstances of independence. A surprising recommendation in the report is
for the creation of some kind of university in the mostly-Russian northeast
of Estonia. Although such a univeristy would be small at first, it could at
least fill a gap in higher education for those Russians unable to study at
Estonia's main universities, where teaching is in Estonian.
As for media, the report notes the fact that most Russian-speakers in
Estonia still live within the cultural environment of the Russian Federation
. They mostly watch RF television, frequently read RF newspapers. The
report calls on the Estonian government to think about setting up a Russian-
and other minority-language television station. Such a station would help to
orientate non-Estonians toward Estonia by keeping them informed of local
events, culture, and society.
Finally, the report recommends that a "bureau for Estonian integration" be
created along the lines of the government's current" bureau for European
integration". Such a bureau would equally be headed by a state minister and
would be responsible for overseeing integration as a whole.
On August 20, the UNDP commission handed over its report to Mrs. Andra
Veidemann, the current Minister for Ethnic Affairs. The report will now be
reviewed by the full cabinet and then a decision will be made as to what
steps need to be taken next. Mrs. Veidemann is equally chairing a
commission of her own on integration, however, her group is expected to come
up with more concrete proposals, including draft changes in legislation as
well as new governmental actions.
Overall, there appears to be a impetus toward change in Estonia's ethnic
policy. In part, this seems to be a result of Estonia's initial acceptance
into the first round of EU enlargement negotiations. Concrete changes may
yet take time, as the negotiations themselves proceed; however the current
government led by Mart Siimann is clearly seen as more flexible than
previous ones and thus is likely to support some degree of revision.
--
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