Vetik, Raivo --- "Statelessness, Citizenship and Belonging in Estonia" [2011] ELECD 176; in Blitz, K. Brad; Lynch, Maureen (eds), "Statelessness and Citizenship" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Statelessness and Citizenship

Editor(s): Blitz, K. Brad; Lynch, Maureen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849800679

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: Statelessness, Citizenship and Belonging in Estonia

Author(s): Vetik, Raivo

Number of pages: 12

Extract:

9. Statelessness, citizenship and
belonging in Estonia
Raivo Vetik

After regaining independence in August 1991 and reintroducing the
Citizenship Act of 1938 half a year later in February 1992, about one third
of the population of Estonia became stateless. The 1992 law was based on
the idea of the `legal continuity' of the pre-war Estonian Republic, which
means that only those persons who were citizens before Estonia's incorpo-
ration into the Soviet Union in 1940 and their descendants were entitled to
automatic citizenship. Migrants from the Soviet period and their descend-
ants, by contrast, had to go through the process of naturalization. The
law required two years of residence before a person is entitled to apply for
citizenship and a further one year waiting period before the applicant can
be naturalized. The law also included a loyalty oath and restricts certain
categories of people from gaining citizenship (military officers, foreign
intelligence officers etc.). Last but not least, the law required knowledge of
the Estonian language.1
This chapter examines the benefits of citizenship to formerly stateless
people in Estonia. It analyses how the change in the legal status of the
Russian-speaking minority population in Estonia, above all the acquisi-
tion of Estonian citizenship, has affected their socio-economic and socio-
cultural adaptation. To this end, it draws upon two principal sources of
information: evidence gathered in a public opinion poll on the integration
of ethnic Russians in Estonia, conducted in spring 2008,2 and in-depth
interviews ...