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TheLatvian diaspora refers toLatvians and people of Latvian descent residing outsideLatvia.
According to estimates by the Latvian Foreign Ministry, as at 2012, about 370,000 Latvian citizens permanently resided outside of Latvia, most of them having emigrated in the preceding decade.[1] The largest Latvian communities are in theUnited Kingdom, theUnited States,Canada,Ireland,Sweden,Australia,New Zealand,Russia,Brazil,Belgium,Israel,Norway,Finland,Spain andPortugal.[2]
While Latvia was part of theRussian Empire, many Latvians left to other regions of Russia (for instance,Bashkiria) looking for opportunities to farm, as well as forLatin America andAustralia.[3] The next large wave of emigration was related toWorld War I, when thousands of refugees and evacuated factory workers moved to other regions of Russia. Many of the refugees returned after Latvia became independent, others formed communities inRussia,Ukraine and theCaucasus.[3] A significant number of Latvians from the ranks of the BolshevikLatvian Riflemen occupied senior positions in the earlySoviet Russia andSoviet Union.
A large wave of emigration fromLatvia followed theSoviet and Nazi German occupations of the country duringWorld War II.
More than 200,000 Latvian citizens died during World War II and the occupations, and thousands of Latvians fled the country. The largest communities of Latvians were established in theUnited States,Canada,Sweden,Great Britain andAustralia.[3] The Latvian diaspora in the West actively worked for the restoration of Latvia's independence. TheLatvian diplomatic service in exile represented the interests of independent Latvia in the Free World during the Soviet and Nazi occupations.[4]
During the period thatLatvia was under Soviet rule (until 1991), around 60,000 inhabitants of Latvia weredeported to remote areas of theSoviet Union. Simultaneously, Latvians migrated from theLatvian SSR to other Soviet Republics. A number ofLatvian Jews emigrated toIsrael and theUnited States.[citation needed]
Following the 2004accession of Latvia to the European Union and the2008 financial crisis, as many as 200,000 Latvians left the country.[3] In the United Kingdom, the2011 UK Census already recorded 53,977 Latvian-born residents in England, 692 in Wales,[5] 4,475 in Scotland,[6] and 2,297 in Northern Ireland.[7] In 2021, there were approximately 90,000 Latvian nationals estimated to be residing in the United Kingdom. The highest estimated number of Latvian nationals residing in the United Kingdom was in 2017, when there were 117,000.[8]
The Latvian diaspora provides around €500 million per year to the Latvian economy.[9]
There are currently more than 100 Latvian schools across the world.[9]
Latvian art historianJānis Siliņš, in 1990, described the movement to whichMark Rothko,Jānis Kalmīte,Lucia Peka,Mārtiņš Krūmiņš and otherLatvian-Americans belong as "those artists who amidst the changing trends of contemporary art, after thirty years in exile and emigration, as still basically close to and developing the traditions of their homeland art - of the 'Latvian or Riga School'"
Artists of the Latvian diaspora include:
In 2004, in the state ofIllinois, the Global Society for Latvian Art was created to track the Latvian Diaspora.[10] It is a nonprofit501(c)(3) corporation, whose stated mission is “to promote, preserve, and exhibit works of art created by artists who were exiled from Latvia as a result of the Second World War as well as other artists of Latvian descent; to promote and encourage global communication among persons interested in Latvian art and culture; to establish and operate a museum of Latvian diaspora art dedicated to collecting, studying, exhibiting and preserving such art; and to work with all existing Latvian-American organizations and other organizations in trust and harmony and to develop close ties between Latvian-Americans and others whose goals are to support and promote Latvian art and other Latvian cultural art forms.”
The World Latvian Art Center opened in 2014 inCēsis. It was created with the aim of promoting the preservation of artistic values created by Latvian artists who went into exile due to World War II and the new generation living abroad. The center was established by the Global Society for Latvian Art.
