Against the backdrop of calls from the mayor of the Lithuanian capital to initiate amendments encouraging foreigners to learn the Lithuanian language, Minister of the Interior Vladislav Kondratovich stated that new changes are being prepared and will be presented to the Seimas, but emphasized the uniqueness of Vilnius.
“Today we are working in this direction and we really plan new changes regarding when a person needs to speak (in Lithuanian — BNS),” the minister told reporters on Thursday in Jonava.
“Perhaps not two years, not three years, but if a person has a long-term perspective and sees themselves in Lithuania, then we believe that after five years of living in Lithuania out of eight, they should already speak and master our state language,” he noted.
This statement came after Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas proposed on Thursday not to extend residence permits three years after the issuance of the first temporary residence permit to individuals with a “zero level of Lithuanian language.”
According to the mayor, the main problem lies in the lack of legal incentives for foreigners living in the country on temporary residence permits to learn the Lithuanian language. He confirmed that he has already approached the Minister of the Interior urging to initiate the corresponding amendments in the Seimas.
According to the municipality, there are 76,000 foreigners living in the capital, of which 61,000 are citizens of non-European Union (EU) countries.
Kondratovich emphasized that Vilnius is different from other cities, such as Šiauliai, where they are waiting for incoming workers.
“Vilnius is the capital, where not only foreigners legally coming to Lithuania today strive to find themselves, but also residents of Lithuania itself,” the politician said.
“If I were to conduct a survey in Vilnius today about whether there are enough parking spaces for cars, I would most likely receive 95% of responses saying there are not enough,” he added.
The minister also noted that for the second consecutive year, the number of foreigners arriving in the country with permits is not increasing, “it is indeed controlled and balanced according to needs.”
The BNS agency previously reported that as early as the end of September, the Seimas began considering amendments initiated by Benkunskas’s party colleague, Conservative leader Laurynas Kasčiūnas, which propose to tighten migration policy by enhancing language integration for foreigners and introducing new restrictions.
The amendments, among other things, aim to establish a requirement for foreigners who have lived in the country for five years and wish to extend their temporary residence permit to learn the Lithuanian language.
“I hear that they want to make it so that those coming to work in Lithuania speak Lithuanian, well, that is unnatural,” said Kondratovich. “In the service sector, where a service should be provided and our state language should be used, speaking Lithuanian is necessary, there are no questions there, the arriving people must do this. But in other sectors, especially considering that today we have many Ukrainians with temporary asylum, (...) they are likely to know the language only as much as they need for life in Lithuania today, even after four years of war, if they associate their future with Ukraine.”
Changes in migration policy were also proposed by President Gitanas Nausėda. According to them, temporary work permits for immigrants are proposed to be issued faster and on a priority basis, for a maximum of two years.
According to the Migration Department as of March 1, 189,000 foreigners had temporary residence permits in Lithuania.
