Estonia/ 4.2 Recent policy issues and debates  

4.2.1 Cultural minorities, groups and communities

In Estonia, there are about 423 000 people who are not ethnic Estonians by origin, representing 31% of the country's population (see Table 1).

Table 1:     Ethnic composition of the population in Estonia, 1934-2006

Source:      1934, 1989, 2000: population census; 2006: Statistics Estonia, population statistics.

A vast majority of this group are Russians. However, not all of them are legally described as members of national minorities. About three quarters of the inhabitants, with non-Estonian ethnicity, belong to an immigrant population of relatively recent origin. At the time when Estonia re-established its independence (1991), Soviet-time settlers into the country were legally regarded as immigrants; as a consequence, a considerable minority of its present population are either citizens of other countries or stateless. Those Soviet immigrants and their descendants who have not naturalised themselves are either citizens of other countries (6.3% of the country's population are citizens of Russia, 0.7% of other countries) or stateless (12.4%). It should be pointed out that a majority of the stateless people were, in fact, born in Estonia. However, most non-citizens are holders of long-term residence permits, which grant them the same economic and social rights that are guaranteed for Estonian citizens. They have a vote in municipal, but not in national elections, and are not themselves eligible as members of Parliament or municipal councils; non-citizens cannot hold certain public offices. In 1 January 2006, the total number of resident Estonian citizens was 1 137 706, while 230 649 were not Estonian citizens and had either a temporary (43 601) or long-term (187 048) residence permit.

The first paragraph of the Law on the Cultural Autonomy of National Minorities, enacted in 1993, defines national minorities as consisting of those people who have Estonian citizenship. The Law designs bodies that can organise the cultural and educational life of national minorities, governed by a Board elected by citizens who register as belonging to the relevant minority group. The government institution responsible for the implementation of the Law is the Ministry of Culture. However, the government does not seem to have adopted any clear policies on the practical role and status of these bodies. Due to a previous lack of by-laws necessary for the implementation of the Law - they were introduced only in 2003 - the first effort to implement the law did not take place before 2004, when Finns were the first minority group to establish a minority council. In 2007, the Swedes followed their example. In 2009, the two councils received a total financing of 1.5 million EEK (96 000 EUR). In March 2006, the NGO Vene Kultuuriautonoomia (Russian Cultural Autonomy) applied to the Ministry of Culture to initiate the creation of cultural autonomy for Russians in Estonia. The Ministry announced its dismissal of the application as late as early 2009, after an intervention by the Chancellor of Justice and a court decision obliging it to process the application. The NGO has appealed the decision. In December 2009, a second similar application has been made by another NGO.

Estonia has ratified several international conventions concerned with the cultural rights of minorities such as the United Nations' International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. However, Estonia has not ratified the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages.

Estonian is the sole official language of the country. However, the state provides its inhabitants with some cultural services in Russian, also. In certain municipalities, where a majority of inhabitants are ethnic Russians, the local administration is legally obliged to offer services in both languages. Even in other localities, basic public services and information are usually available in Russian also. As for other minority languages, the state or the municipalities do not provide any language services. However, there are a number of societies, which help to promote the cultures of other national minority groups e.g., Armenians, Latvians, Swedes, Finns. These societies receive state financial support from the Ministry of Culture; granting of state support is not dependent on citizenship. From 1991 to 1997, the yearly increase of support to these groups was continuously lower than that of the cost of living index. In 1998 however, it was more than doubled, to the level of EEK 2 million (128 000 EUR) per year. This indicated the adoption of a more active stand in policies towards immigrants and national minorities; in other fields of politics, integration issues seem to have gained more attention. In 2007, the budget was EEK 2.7 million (ca. 175 000 EUR) and has increased from 2005. On the local level, a substantial part of the governments' support for cultural organisations is granted to those promoting minority cultures.

At the same time, statistics and surveys show that the participation of ethnic minorities and immigrants in cultural activities has remained on a lower level than that of native Estonians. This may be related to their income and socio-economic status, which are, on the average, lower than those of native Estonians. Moreover, these differences seem to have been growing, rather than decreasing during the last ten years. 2003 the lower level of participation in cultural activities by minority groups was confirmed again by a survey on cultural consumption and participation that was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture. According to the latest findings there are, however, three cultural activities that are more common among people belonging to minority groups: purchasing books, purchasing art, and visiting concerts. It is important from the point of view of overall political development, that non-Estonians do not become alienated from the country's cultural life. In the long run, the objective of cultural policies towards immigrants and national minorities should be to support the development of such institutions and forms of culture that help them integrate into society, while at the same time preserving and developing their national identities.