Etninių mažumų grupės Lietuvoje : demografinė kaita ir socialinės padėties aspektai

• Leidėjo tinklalapis: leidinio tekstas

• Frejūtė-Rakauskienė, Monika
• Marcinkevičius, Andrius
• Šliavaitė, Kristina

ENThe paper presents an overview of socio-economic and legislative situation of ethnic minority groups in Lithuanian Republic focusing on the years after 2010. The main focus is on demographic processes and social situation of the main ethnic groups (mainly Russians, Poles) in Lithuanian society. These questions are addressed by referring to the data of population Census and some sociological research data, as well as by overviewing some research publications by Lithuanian scholars . The Census, statistical and numerous research data reveal that ethnic minority groups encounter similar demographic challenges as the titular nation (Lithuanians), i.e. decrease of population which resulted in shrinking schooling sector (see for e. g. Petrušauskaitė, Pilinkaitė-Sotirovič, 2012 etc.). The research data reveal that social categories (profession, generation, gender) are as important for identity of ethnic minority groups members as ethnicity (Matulionis et al., 2011 a, b, c, Petrušauskaitė et al., 2015). When considering institutional and legislative level it is important to mention that in 2010 the Department of National Minorities and Lithuanians Living Abroad was reorganized, and the Law on National Minorities ceased to exist. These changes created some void in national minority policy and were criticized by a number of international and local non-governmental organizations which work in the sphere of human rights. The state policy in regards to national minorities also has been criticized by scholars because of not paying enough attention to social, economic dimensions of minorities integration. The re-establishment of the Department of National Minorities in 2015 and development of some state policies addressing the social-economic situations of the regions populated by ethnic minority groups could be evaluated as some new direction in the state policies on national minorities.The authors present the overview of some selected scholarly publications that address issues of ethnic minority situation in Lithuania and were issued after 2010. The authors argue that investigation of identity issues of ethnic minority groups has attracted quite systematic and solid research, i.e. Lithuanian scholars applied qualitative and quantitative methodologies and methods in investigation of these questions (see for example Matulionis et al., 2011 a, b, c; Kazėnas et al., 2014 etc.). The situation of ethnic minority groups (Russians, Poles, Belorusians, etc.) in job market, education sector, interrelation of ethnicity and socio-economic situation has been investigated (see, for example, Kasatkina, Beresnevičiūtė, 2010; Okunevičiūtė Neverauskienė, 2010, Petrušauskaitė 2014 etc.), however, this research body is less numerous and rather fragmented. The lack of systematic monitoring of ethnic minorities situation in labour market, health sector, education has been noted by researchers (see Petrušauskaitė, Pilinkaitė-Sotirovič, 2012). The authors of this paper support this position and argue that the questions of ethnic minority members socio-economic situation and participation in different spheres of Lithuanian society must be investigated in a systematic way since as research demonstrates (see Šliavaitė, 2012, 2015c; Taljūnaitė, 2014; Labanauskas, 2014, Kazėnas et al., 2014 etc.), social and economic questions, prospects of professional career are no less important in building civic loyalties and belongings as cultural and emotional attachments. [From the publication]