Lithuania seeks to stop emigration, instead of opening doors to foreigners

The Lithuanian authorities must put all efforts necessary into stopping the emigration growth in the country, Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis said on Tuesday.

"Primarily, we must do everything we can in order to make local people stay here, build their lives here, give births to kids. These are the main things," Skvernelis said in an interview with local radio broadcaster Lrt.lt.

However, he stopped short of supporting the idea that more foreigners, despite their working qualifications, should be invited to come and stay in the Baltic country that is facing demographic challenges.

Preliminary statistical data show that from January to September this year, 47,030 Lithuanians emigrated, compared to 50,300 over the whole of last year, local media reported.

Addressing the question of who will carry the tax burden in the country in the event that the number of residents continues to decrease, Skvernelis said "we can't measure just by taxpaying".

"All Europe, particularly Western Europe, is facing a shortage of human resources. However, we can't measure just by taxpaying, by human resources, in order to welcome everybody who wants to come," Skvernelis said.

He pointed to the government program which lists 27 professions of highly-skilled workers for which the entrance and issuance of work permits in Lithuania has been recently simplified.

"If we see that there is a critical situation in certain economic sectors, we will add a few more professions to the list," Skvernelis noted.

In a separate interview with TV broadcaster LRT on Monday, Skvernelis said economic reasons were the main reasons behind the large-scale emigration phenomenon.

"Despite the growing economy, people might think and believe that it will be easier to achieve some results abroad, such as save money for a house, accumulate investments in business, to raise a family. It is no secret that some people emigrate due to certain social injustice, problems of the education system, or simply in search for happiness elsewhere," Lithuania's head of government said.

Lithuania's employer's organizations, including the leading Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists (LPK), repeatedly warned about the lack of workers in the country.

Robertas Dargis, president of LPK, was quoted as saying earlier that outsourcing workers from third countries is a necessity and the government will be forced to address the issue.

"We are still losing one percent of the population each year," Dargis was quoted as saying in LPK in a statement released in June.

Meanwhile, a private survey commissioned by Citadele Bank and published in July showed that 46 percent of Lithuanian business representatives suggested that large-scale and unabating emigration posed the largest social risk to the country's future development.

Nearly 700,000 residents have left Lithuania since 1990. Due to emigration and other negative demographic trends, Lithuania's population decreased in this period from 3.7 million to 2.8 million.