PROBLEMS IN THE DEFINITION OF DIASPORA IN THE CONTEXT OF LATVIA’S DIASPORA LAW
PROBLEMS IN THE DEFINITION OF DIASPORA IN THE CONTEXT OF LATVIA’S DIASPORA LAW

Summary/Abstract: Latvia’s Diaspora Law entered into force on 1 January 2019, regulating Latvia’s relationship with its diaspora abroad. The process of creation of the law was not a smooth and easy as the main problem and debate arose from arriving to a common definition of the term “diaspora”. There were two main broad approaches offered: wide and inclusive definition would allow for self-identification, but narrow one would exclude non-citizens seeing them as potential threat to the Latvian state. Two different views of the definitions reveal two distinctive views about identities and tell the story of Latvia that is caught between the past and the future.

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