Jaunimo emigracija iš Lietuvos 1990-2005 m

Abstract

The master thesis “The Youth Emigration from Lithuania 1990 – 2005” raises an important issue – residents’ emigration from Lithuania, focusing on young people’s international mobility. The purpose of the paper is to reveal the factors and causes which influence the massive emigration of the Lithuanian youth. The paper includes a survey of migration processes until 1990 concentrating on the changes in migration forms and flows that occured after 1990 when the legislative restrictions on emigration from Lithuania were eliminated. The raised issue is approached by analyzing social, psychological and other scientific literature as well as various contemporary periodicals. Statistical analysis of the data about the official and undecleared cases of emigration from the state enables to take a closer look at the migration flows from 1990 until 2005. Furtheremore, the qualitative research method, a semi structural interview, was used to examine the possible causes of increased international mobility of the Lithuanian youth. The research paper consists of theoretical and practical parts. The first section of the theoretical part introduces the concept of migration and analyses the historical development of migration processes in Lithuania and in the world in general. Moreover, the first section includes the classification of migration forms, the overview of migration theories and the analysis of the beneficial and negative impact of emigration on the emigrant and the state. The statisitical data about the youth emigration from Lithuania and the influence on the changes of the population are analysed in the second section of the theoretical part. The practical part consists of the analysis of the the semi structural interviews that were conducted in order to examine more deeply the factors influencing young people‘s emigration. 12 interviewees, aged 20 – 29, were grouped into three categories: those who do not have migration experience, those who once emigrated and returned in Lithuania and those who have been living abroad longer than six months. The interviewed people point out the following reasons due to which the Lithuanian youth tend to choose a foreign country at least for a temporary stay: the lack of professional opportunities in their home country, unemployment, wish to gain international working eperience and knowledge, improve one‘s knowledge of a foreign language, earn some money or simply broaden one‘s mind and experience adventures. The interviewees also express their attitude towards the present situation and living conditions in Lithuania as well as their attitude towards contemporary emigration of the Lithuanian people. What is more, the interviewed people speculate about the possible ways of attracting the emigrants to return to their home country. The results of the research imply that the youth emigration from Lithuania is viewed as the topic of serious concern and this problem should be solved on the level of both, the individual himself/herself and the state government. The relevance of the paper is that the youth, which is regarded as a highly mobile group, has not been paid sufficient attention concerning the researches of emigration. Therefore, the research paper allows to examine the causes of the emigration on the individual level, taking into account personal strategies that affect the decision making to leave one’s home country. The paper also provides some recommendations about the possible ways how to prevent massive youth emigration from Lithuania and how to encourage the remigration. Keywords: migration, emigration, emigrant, youth, young people, reemigration, causes.