Integration in Estonian society

Estonia is a culturally diverse society. It is important that all permanent residents of Estonia, irrespective of their ethnic origin, feel secure in Estonia, are competent in the state language, share the underlying values of the Constitution, and are able to lead a fulfilling life by participating in the societal, economic and cultural life of the country. Everyone is guaranteed the right to preserve and develop his/ her language and culture. Integration involves the society as a whole and up to now it has achieved in general good results at ensuring the participation of all ethnic groups residing in Estonia in social life. Estonia is prepared to share its experiences related to multi-cultural society and integration.

More than 120 different nationalities and ethnic groups are represented in Estonia. As of 2000, the largest ethnic groups are: Estonians 68.6%, Russians 25.6%, Ukrainians 2.1%, Belarusians 1.2% and Finns 0.8 %.  84% of Estonia's population is Estonian citizens, 8.5% citizens of other countries and 7.5 % are persons with undetermined citizenship.

Integration policy

Integration in Estonian society is one of state's priorities. Integration is regarded as a two-way process that requires efforts on the part of majority and minority alike. Integration creates friendly and secure coexistence that is based on the mutual acceptance and respect of various social groups. This means that all of Estonia's residents have an equal interest, wish, and opportunity to contribute to the country's development and to participate in public life regardless of ethnicity or native language.

As early as 1993, President Lennart Meri established a Roundtable of National Minorities. The Roundtable participated actively in the national minorities policy. Standing guests at the Roundtable included representatives of the Minister of Ethnic Affairs and diplomatic missions accredited to Estonia. Since 2007, inter-ethnic relations are among the priority topics of the Estonian Co-operation Assembly established by the President. The assembly is a co-operation network of non-governmental organisations interested in Estonia's long-term development whose goals are to share and co-ordinate the views of these organisations and on this basis produce assessments and proposals regarding issues that are central to the future of the country.

In June 1998, the Riigikogu (Parliament) adopted the integration policy document "The Bases of the Estonian State Integration Policy". The aim of the integration policy was to "ensure rapid modernisation of society in the context of accession to the European Union, while preserving both stability and a commitment to the protection and continued development of Estonian culture".

The Government has taken a number of significant steps to further the integration process:

• In 1997, a new post of Minister without portfolio was established, responsible for issues concerning population and integration.
• In 1998, the Government formed the Integration Foundation to support actions and projects directed towards integration.
• In 2000, the Government approved the State Integration Programme for 2000-2007 - a framework and a guide for the implementation of integration policy for governmental institutions.
• In April 2008, the Government adopted the next State Integration Programme for 2008-2013.

Short overview of completed integration activities by sub-programmes of the Programme 2000-2007

Promoting Estonian citizenship among people with undetermined citizenship is one of Estonia's priorities. As a result of a consistent integration policy, the number of persons with undetermined citizenship has decreased steadily – as of October 2009 there were 150 761  individuals who have become citizens through naturalisation process since 1992. Changes in legislation, namely the reduction of the time required for processing citizenship applications, have definitely contributed to this. The costs of the language courses are reimbursed by the state to those who pass the citizenship exams, and there is no charge for taking those examinations. Free citizenship courses are available for 3 000 potential citizens per year. There is progress in disseminating information concerning application for citizenship to stateless individuals through the assistance of schools, local municipal councils and the cultural societies of national minorities.

Education:

• Teaching Estonian as a second language and teaching in Estonian in kindergartens, schools, and vocational institutions;
• From 2007 the transition to teaching some subjects in Estonian in Russian-medium secondary schools (years 10-12) began. One subject taught in Estonian will be introduced per year. Ultimately (in 2011), up to 60% of the curriculum will be taught in Estonian. The transition is demand-driven and aims to offer and guarantee equal study and working opportunities for graduates of all state schools. The transition does not affect basic education (years 1-9).
• Thirty schools (of 63 Russian-medium secondary schools) take part in the language immersion programme;
• During 7 years, over 15 000 children have participated in language camps and family stays. Both Estonian and non-Estonian youth take part in the camps. In addition to developing communicative skills and raising motivation and interest in learning the Estonian language, the aim of this activity is to lower linguistic and cultural barriers. In a family exchange project, non-Estonian young people can spend an average of one week to two months in an Estonian family and actively take part in their daily life;
• Teacher in-service training and compilation of methodological materials;
• Train-the trainer courses for admitting recent immigrants in general education schools;
• Student and teacher exchange, co-operation of schools, contests, school excursions "into Estonian history".

The education and culture of ethnic minorities:

• Ethnic minority 'Sunday' schools, art groups and cultural societies receive regular support from the state both for administrative expenses and for separate projects as well.
• The objective of the activities is to enable ethnic minorities to preserve and advance their culture by offering instruction and informal education in their native language. In addition, by calling for more support from the state budget for national minority cultural societies and supplementary schools, the programme seeks to increase the percentage of individuals who successfully pass the official language exam.

The teaching of Estonian to adults:

• The programme seeks to increase the Estonian language proficiency among adults and to assist them to successfully pass the official language exam.
• People passing the citizenship exam, which includes a language component, can apply for a 6 000 EEK refund for costs incurred during language training. The refund programme is considered a great success.
• Internship positions: there are labour mobility projects within Estonia that allow individuals to practice the language in a professional environment and widen their social networks.

Social competence:

• Encouragement and support for youth co-operation through joint activities, exchange programmes and project support schemes;
• Production of Russian-language and bilingual television and radio programmes, radio broadcasts in minority languages. There is a Russian language public radio programme, Radio 4, and Russian language programmes on the public TV channel.
• Citizen's Handbook: The concept of the citizen in this project does not denote persons with Estonian citizenship only but rather includes all people residing legally in Estonia.
• Free courses for citizenship tests;
• Organisation of integration-related research and project evaluations;
• Training of representatives of NGOs involved in the implementation of integration-related projects;
• The government will also carry out extensive campaigns to inform people about the possibilities of acquiring citizenship. The government also plans to speed up the naturalisation process with a goal of naturalising 5 000 new citizens per year.

Final appraisal of the programme carried out by the independent experts demonstrates that the government's integration policy has brought forth positive changes in society and played an important role in creating tolerance and cultural pluralism and maintaining ethnic diversity in Estonian society. According to the surveys, a majority of the representatives of other nationalities living in Estonia regard Estonia as their homeland. At the same time, there are still problems to be solved in the framework of long-term policy.

The State Integration Programme for 2008–2013

The Integration Programme consists of two parts: a strategy, which establishes goals to be met, and the action plan, which contains an overview of planned activities and their cost. The action plan contains over 200 different actions for advancing integration.

The Integration Strategy has set the goal that by 2013:

• Knowledge of the Estonian language will have improved on all levels;
• Contact and communication between people with different mother tongues will increase, and the difference in the number of Estonians and Russian- speakers participating in non-governmental associations and in the public sphere has decreased;
• The ratio of people with undetermined citizenship among Estonia's population will consistently decrease;
• A majority of inhabitants of Estonia trust people of other nationalities and the state of Estonia itself;
• The majority of people whose native language is not Estonian will regularly get information from Estonian-language media and trust it;
• Differences in the employment rate and incomes of employees of different nationalities will be decreased.

What is new in the new strategy?

• double budget in comparison with the previous programme
• the importance of direct contacts between various communities is emphasised
• greater role for local governments
• more focused, target-group projects, for example:

- A programme for employers to help them understand multicultural society;
- A programme of labour exchange for workers;
- A programme for the unemployed combining professional training with language instruction;
- Free language courses for rescue and police officers,
Summer language instruction projects for the young people;
- A programme to encourage  wider media coverage of integration and ethnic minorities

Main integration fields are:

Educational and Cultural integration
The overall goal is to guarantee equal educational opportunities for all the residents of Estonia in a shared educational system, and also to provide conditions for the preservation of other languages and cultures.

Legal and political integration
The overall goal is to guarantee law-based equal opportunities for participation in public and political life for all residents of Estonia, regardless of their ethnic background or mother tongue.

Social and economic integration
The overall goal is to guarantee equal opportunities in the labour market for all of Estonia's residents regardless of their ethnic background, mother tongue, or where they live.

The Programme is available in Estonian, the summary also in Russian and English on the Ministry of Culture website under Cultural Diversity and Integration.

Financing

The integration process is based on long-term and systematic support by the state. The State Integration Programme is implemented according to the Action Plan as approved by the Government. The activities are financed with state budget funds from the Ministries of Education and Research, Culture, and Social Affairs, and the Integration Foundation.

The overall cost of the programme for 2000-2007 was 493 925 000 EEK. The budget of the 2008-2013 programme is twice as big as the previous one.

Planned and necessary budget and foreign resources totalling 492 554 000 EEK are available for the implementation of activities from 2008-2010.

The Integration Foundation

This government-established foundation was formed in March 1998 to initiate and support integration-related projects. It also co-ordinates the effective use of integration resources, including foreign funding. The Foundation's activities are guided by the Integration Strategy for 2008–2013 and the action plan. The Foundation supports projects submitted by various members of society, such as local governments, businesses and non-profit organisations. The funding for these projects is provided from the State Budget and different EU foundations.  From 1998 to 2007 included, more than 400 NGO projects have been financed from the state budget.

The foundation co-ordinates two centres whose activities are administered through a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Education and Research.

The Centre for Educational Programmes co-ordinates the development and implementation of activities under the Estonian Integration Strategy 2008-2013 that are within the competence of the Ministry of Education and Research in the spheres of education, language didactics, youth work and mother tongue language studies for national and ethnic minorities.

The Language Immersion Centre is responsible for the National Immersion Programme launched by the Ministry of Education and Research in co-operation with Canadian and Finnish partners. Language immersion is a multilingual form of teaching, where pupils learn some subjects in Estonian and some subjects in Russian. The programme assists Russian-speaking children to learn Estonian and to preserve their mother tongue at a high level, while receiving a good education at the same time. The Centre is responsible for the development of educational materials, training, research projects, and communication with the main target groups of the programme and knowledge management.

Further Information

The Integration Foundation
The Citizenship and Migration Board
Language Immersion Centre
The Ministry of the Interior
Ministry of Culture
Ministry of Education and Research
The Ministry of Social Affairs