Między integracją a dyskryminacją. Kwestia obywatelstwa mniejszości narodowych w Republice Litewskiej
Between integration and discrimination. The issue of citizenship of ethnic minorities in the Republic of Lithuania

Author(s): Adam Bobryk
Subject(s): Sociology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: citizenship; national minority; integration; discrimination
Summary/Abstract: Lithuania heading for sovereignty and secession from the USSR introduced liberalrules to gain citizenship, which considerably distinguished it from other Baltic republics.It mainly aimed to acquire allies for independence actions also among national minorities.Officially, it was pointed at democratic assumptions of a new system and equalitybefore the law. The situation has been drastically changed after declaring the restorationof independent State of Lithuania. A lot of differences between declarations and practicehave been noticed within the sovereign country. As an example, up to 2006 only peopleof Lithuanian nationality could hold a dual citizenship. Moreover, gaining the citizenshiphad not entitled one to all the rights. Graduates from schools where Lithuanian hadnot been the primary language of education, who completed it before 1991, regardlessof their seniority, could not practice many professions or perform management taskswithout passing a certain exam. Administrative lithuanisation of names and surnamesin personal documents had been widely used. There had been some other lithuanisationmechanisms. According to the official assumptions they were meant to allow minoritiesto integrate with the Lithuanians. It had been perceived as assimilation and sometimesdiscrimination actions by the Poles, Russians, Jewish or Belarusians.

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