Instead of Lithuanians and Russian-speakers – Thais: calls for more workers to be brought from other countries

According to the data of the Ministry of Social Security and Labor, 10 thousand people worked in Lithuania last year. citizens of the European Union and 131 thousand citizens of third countries. The largest number of Belarusians (47.6 thousand) and Ukrainians (44.8 thousand) work in Lithuania.

Thus, foreigners now make up almost 10 percent. of all employees. But experts warn that current trends could cause problems.

Need stricter selection of immigrants?

Swedbank’s Chief Economist Nerijus Mačiulis criticizes the current immigration policy in Lithuania. He is convinced that there should be stricter selection of immigrants.

“We should also determine the countries from which we want to bring employees. The experience of Sweden and Germany shows that when a critical mass of immigrants from one country arrives, they settle in one city or region and have no motivation to integrate into society.

They don’t learn the language, they don’t let their children go to local schools. That is why social and economic problems arise,” the economist observed.

According to him, currently in Lithuania 95 percent immigrants are Russian speakers and this is a certain problem.

“The key to a successful immigration policy is its diversity. People from as many different countries as possible with various professions should come to Lithuania,” the economist assured.

According to him, in order for an immigrant to come to Lithuania, he must have a job offer.

“However, a large number of job offers are fictitious. Established companies allegedly offer jobs and collect brokerage fees from immigrants. And all they have to do is find a job in Lithuania themselves or go somewhere else.

We should not be this kind of gateway for immigrants from third countries. Therefore, there should be stricter requirements on what kind of companies can offer jobs to immigrants. And the people who have arrived should commit to work for us for a certain period of time and not leave,” commented N. Mačiulis.

According to him, it is important that only low-skilled workers do not come to Lithuania.

“We have a huge jump in workers who work as food or people carriers. However, this is not the basis for economic prosperity. This only solves the problem of the lack of workers in the short term,” noted the economist.

He proposed to take into account the nationalities of the immigrants

Andrius Romanovskis, president of the Lithuanian Business Confederation, also agreed that there is no clear immigration policy in Lithuania.

“If we look at the last 4 years, we will see that the immigration policy was constantly being changed. At first it was free, then they started to tighten it. We don’t have a long-term strategy.

Two-thirds of immigrants arriving in Lithuania are refugees, that is, Ukrainians and Belarusians, who can also be considered refugees. The other part consists of long-haul drivers who travel all over Europe and always return home. Their goal is not to establish themselves in Lithuania for longer,” said the business representative.

According to A. Romanovskis, Lithuania has to compete with other European countries due to the high added value of employees.

“And we lose because other countries are able to offer workers better conditions.”

Immigration is the only solution that can solve demographic problems. However, the number of immigrants should be increased sensibly, and attention should be paid to their integration,” said a representative of entrepreneurs.

According to A. Romanovskis, everyone agrees that some kind of decisions regarding immigrants are needed, but no one takes the initiative to adopt them, we see different government proposals.

“We should look at certain countries like the Philippines. The people of this country are Catholics, they are culturally closer to us. Then we should look at how these people manage to integrate in other countries. Even later, you should be interested in the policy of permits and visas”, advised the business representative.

According to him, the situation will become acute in the future, and there will be a shortage of both high and low-skilled workers.

“We already have older people working as cleaners and guards. However, we will have to decide what we will do in the future,” said the business representative.

Employers do not offer good working conditions and high salaries?

Inga Ruginienė, the chairperson of the Confederation of Lithuanian Trade Unions, pointed out that no one knows what professions workers are really lacking in our country.

“But most importantly, why are they missing?” Why can’t we prepare them so that employers don’t feel shortchanged?

Still, a mystical list of missing professions was compiled, which is filled and changed every year. More and more professions are appearing in it, even unqualified workers or professions whose training lasts only a few days are added to the list”, commented the representative of the employees.

Foreigners also complain about working conditions

According to I. Ruginienė, the list of missing professions should be abolished first.

“It is convenient for employers to bring cheap labor. But often, even after preparing and training employees, they do not agree to work for certain employers because of bad working conditions and too low wages.

And the employer has an excuse to turn to the authorities and say that he cannot find employees. However, he is not going to change anything to improve the proposed working conditions”, observed I. Ruginienė.

According to her, this leads to an increase in the number of immigrants in Lithuania.

“And we are getting more and more inquiries from foreigners working in Lithuania about unpaid wages and non-compliance with the terms of the contract. After all, the immigrants who arrived here not only work, but also live here. Others do not come alone, but with their families. Therefore, the issue of integration is very important.

People come from very different countries, some of them undemocratic. If we do nothing, the alien communities will grow and they will start to introduce their own rules. Therefore, a lot of energy and money should be devoted to the integration of the people who arrived, so that they adopt our democratic values ​​and mentality”, commented the representative of the employees.

According to her, employers should also invest in integration.

“We should set a limit, introduce a quota on how many people we can check and accept to work and live in Lithuania. Now they are talking about incoming Belarusians, that they need to be checked, but the institutions do not have enough capacity to check everyone”, said I. Ruginienė.