Minorities on the move? Assessing post-enlargement emigration intentions of Latvia's Russian speaking minority

Are ethnic minorities more likely to emigrate from the new EU Member States? Who are the potential minority and majority migrants? This paper studies emigration intentions of the Russian speaking minority in Latvia after the 2004 EU enlargement. Using a survey on emigration intentions conducted in 2005, I show that the minority is more likely to emigrate than the majority. For the Russian speakers, higher education levels tend to be associated with higher probability of emigration, suggesting a minority brain drain. These findings can be explained by (1) linguistic and citizenship policies potentially disadvantaging Russian speakers in the Latvian labour market; (2) family migration capital; and (3) low acceptance of the way in which minority education is provided.