New Book: The Emigrant Communities of Latvia. National Identity, Transnational Belonging, and Diaspora Politics
SSE Riga Assistant Professor Rita Kasa has co-edited and contributed to a recently published book which provides insight in patterns of Latvian migration during the past 25 years.
This open access volume examines experiences of contemporary Latvian migrants, thereby focusing on reasons for emigration, processes of integration in their host countries, and – in the case of return migration - re-integration in their home country.
In the context of European migration, the book describes the case of Latvia, which is interesting due to the multiple waves of excessive emigration, continuously high migration potential among European Union member states, and diverse migrant characteristics. It provides a fascinating insight into the social and psychological aspects linked to migration in a comparative context.
The data in this volume is rich in providing individual level perspectives of contemporary Latvian migrants by addressing issues such as emigrants’ economic, social and cultural inclusion in the host country, ties with the home country and culture, interaction with public authorities both in the host and home country, political views, and perspectives on the permanent settlement in migration or return.
Through topics such as assimilation of children, relationships between emigrants representing different emigration waves, the complex identities and attachments of minority emigrants, and the role of culture and media in identity formation and presentation, this book addresses topics that any contemporary emigrant community is faced with.
This book is an open access book, you can download it for free here
About the Authors
Rita Kaša holds a PhD in Comparative Education from the State University of New York in Buffalo, USA. Her research interests concern educational policy, finance and governance with specific focus on equity and equality in educational access, especially on the level of higher education. Currently she is an Assistant Professor at Graduate School of Education, Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan.
Inta Mieriņa is based at Yale University MacMillan Center for International and Area studies, as Juris Padegs Research Fellow, and she is also a Senior Researcher at the University of Latvia, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology.