The accession of the new EU member states of Eastern Europe has highlighted ambivalence towards migration both within the older member states, but less frequently discussed, in the new. The former Soviet republic of Latvia serves as a case-study. Outward migration is a factor undermining social and economic progress, while generating pressures towards inward migration to meet labour shortages. Confounding appropriate political and policy responses is the sensitive issue of ‘ethnic balance’, a troubled ‘legacy’ of Latvian history. In the context of changes in the global migratory landscape there is potential for a renewed of regime of discrimination based on ethno-politics with wider European resonance
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