Over the past year, immigration has become an increasingly prominent topic in public debate. In autumn 2025, Riga State City Municipality launched raids to curb irregular migration. In December of the same year, the Parliament (Saeima) established a Parliamentary Investigative Committee to examine problems in national and European Union immigration rules. The committee published its final report in spring 2026.

This article argues that Latvia’s current migration debate is largely the product of years of political indecision. The need for a new Immigration Law was identified as early as 2018, yet the law only entered into force in September 2026, and planned strategies for human capital development and labour migration were never adopted. The State Audit Office has reached a similar conclusion, finding that Latvia has no strategy for attracting foreign workers based on actual labour market needs.

The article outlines the key changes introduced by the new Immigration Law, including the shift from national permanent residence permits to EU long-term resident status, stricter requirements for employers, universities and visa applicants, revised rules for investment-based residence permits, and mandatory early integration courses. It then compares the migration proposals in party programmes for the 2026 Saeima election with official data. While parties and planning documents emphasise the need for highly skilled workers, most work permits are in fact issued to truck drivers, general labourers and construction workers. The data further show that the rise in residence permits since 2022 is driven mainly by Ukrainian civilians, that asylum numbers remain low, that crime among newcomers has not increased, and that migrants make a measurable positive contribution to the economy.

Article “The Lights Are On, but Nobody’s Home: Reflections on Latvia’s Migration Policy” is available here..

This article was produced as part of the project “Beyond Labels: Reframing Migration and Forced Displacement in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland”, funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are the sole responsibility of the Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the funding authority can be held responsible for these views and opinions.