Latvia non-citizens: an example of EU values

Latvia joined the European Union in 2004. At the time, accession to the EU gave hope that the non-citizen passport would eventually be abolished. However, this has not happened. To this day, the non-citizen passport still exists within an EU member state.

A non-citizen passport is issued to individuals who were born in the Soviet Union, i.e., before 1991, and whose parents were of a nationality other than Latvian—most commonly Russian, in about 95% of cases. As a result, many people born in Soviet Latvia—who have lived there their entire lives, worked, and paid taxes—still do not enjoy full civil rights. They are not allowed to vote or run for office. Even their freedom of movement is restricted compared to that of Latvian citizens and other EU nationals. Additional limitations apply in areas such as purchasing real estate, conducting business, and participating in political parties.

The Latvian authorities emphasize that a non-citizen is not a specific category of citizen, but rather an entirely separate legal status. The state’s goal is to reduce the number of non-citizens—either by encouraging them to leave the country or to undergo naturalization.

Yes, non-citizens can become citizens. To do so, they must pass an exam demonstrating knowledge of Latvian history and the Latvian language. However, many non-citizens view this requirement as discriminatory and refuse to take the exam on principle.

There was hope that the issue of non-citizen status would be resolved during the EU accession process, which—at least on papper—promotes democratic freedoms and civil rights. In reality, the matter was largely addressed only through a few recommendations from EU institutions: to minimize the differences between citizens and non-citizens, ease the naturalization process, and allow non-citizens to preserve their cultural identity.

Since 2004, the situation for non-citizens in Latvia has remained largely unchanged—and in fact, has worsened since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022.

I’ll explore this further in my next post if you're interested.