Government to develop activities to decrease the number of non-citizens

At the cabinet meeting of the government held today, Minister of Population and Ethnic Affairs, Urve Palo, gave an overview of the situation in applying for Estonian citizenship. The government decided that the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Justice and the Office of the Minister of Population and Ethnic Affairs will develop national activities for the acknowledgement of the rights and opportunities related to citizenship by the beginning of next year. Among other things, the Ministry of the Interior was given the task of submitting regular reports on citizenship statistics to the government.

The government wishes to inform children of unspecified citizenship and their parents more efficiently of the opportunities for the acquisition of citizenship and cooperate more closely with schools in regard to that as well.

Beginning in October of this year, information classes will be held in schools where the language of study is Russian, where officials from the Citizenship and Migration Board will introduce opportunities for the acquisition of citizenship for children of all age groups. The information classes have been planned for 61 schools. Civics teachers must also be trained so that they would contribute to the valuation of citizenship and share more information on the opportunities for acquiring Estonian citizenship.

Also, when registering a child born in Estonia to parents of unspecified citizenship, information will be provided more efficiently to the parents on the opportunities for acquiring citizenship for their child. Information will also be sent by direct mail for the children of parents with unspecified parents about the acquisition of Estonian citizenship in simplified order, which is allowed by the Citizenship Act. As at May this year, there are 2887 children aged up to 15 in Estonia, both of whose parents have unspecified citizenship and have not applied for citizenship for their child.

As of 2008, the Office of the Minister of Population and Ethnic Affairs initiated a festive ceremony for the granting of the certificate of citizenship; free preparation courses are organised for the examination on the Constitution and the Citizenship Act, and language study expenses (up to EEK 6000) are compensated to those applying for Estonian citizenship. As of November, the Office of the Minister of Population and Ethnic Affairs will launch a campaign entitled “When living in Estonia, it is nice to have Estonian citizenship”!

At the moment, there are 111 677 people with unspecified citizenship in Estonia, which is 8 per cent of the population.