08.05.2009 Lithuania Begins Battle With Xenophobia
This has been admitted by Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vigaudas Ushatskas in his interview to the TV3 channel.
The Head of the Foreign Ministry has urged politicians not to conceal manifestations of radicalism during his appearance on the TV program i>Balsas. lt televizija.
"We simply have no right to look over such situations. Regardless of party identification and occupied positions, each of us must adequately react to anti-Semitic or gay-bashing statements that have been more and more frequent in mass media or at social events lately," Ushatskas declared.
According to him, any manifestations of xenophobia cause damage to Lithuania's image both politically and economically, which affects the situation of the country during the economic crisis in a particularly negative way. And xenophobia is not advantageous economically either.
"It is very important for all of us to understand how essential it is to here and now provide comfortable conditions for the foreigners who express a wish to
study in Lithuanian universities or work in our enterprises. The whole world has already realized that creating high potential without recruitment of talented
people of other nationalities is considerably more difficult than in case they are interested in coming to our labour market," the Minister added.
According to the latest population census, there are 83% of ethnic Lithuanians and 17% of non-Lithuanians in Lithuania, non-Lithuanians including 6.7% of Poles, 6.3% of Russians, 1.2% of Belarusians, 0.6% of Ukrainians, 0.12% of Jews and 1.5% of representatives of other nationalities.
