Information barriers between Russian speaking minority and Estonians

By

Margit Säre	Kadri Vallimae

The main problems of communication in Estonia between two primary groups of residents - Estonians and Russians - are separation by information barriers. The Estonian and Russian media operate separately from each other, receiving information of different sources. Integration, however, requires that information concerning Estonia and its immigrants must be similar and available to everybody.

The integration of non-Estonians into Estonian society could be divided into two groups. One group is formed of non-Estonians, who have lived here many decades already (most of them came here at 40s and 50s as a working power for Soviet industry). Another group includes non-Estonians arriving in the future and whose integration must be anticipated and prepared for.

Today many non-Estonians continue to live mentally outside of Estonia in the sense, that what occurs elsewhere is of more interest to them than what occurs in Estonia (outside of their own small locality and linguistic group). During the Kosovo crisis, there was organized a demonstration against NATO, mostly by Russian youth and military pensioners, in front of the embassy of USA in Tallinn. Even they were living in Estonia, they were so concerned about other country’s (Russian’s) territory and problems.

At the same time, the available information in (local) foreign languages is limited. There are no TV channels in Russian produced in Estonia but there are some broadcasts in Estonian TV (news and talk shows) in Russian language. Russian speaking people watch mainly Russian TV channels produced abroad.

The Estonian-medium reader, listener and viewer also lack sufficient information about what is occurring in non-Estonian communities, especially their feelings, opinions and the basis for the latter. Estonians are informed about the activities of the non-Estonian populations in a selected manner, primarily about sensationalized events. We can hear only about mafia, demonstrations or crimes done by Russians, from the news. Only on occasionally we are informed about their cultural and social events.

Providing information is a one part of the dialogue with non-Estonians. By providing clear information, better understanding between both community groups may be created. Sufficient information would increase mutual understanding between majority and minorities and decrease negative prejudices.

Estonia, being an applicant country to the European Union must guarantee that all the people can use the similar information. Then it is easier to find a compromise and dissolve the immigration problem that may be the biggest obstacle on our way to the EU.

The biggest minority in Estonia is Russians, forming almost one third of the population. The biggest Russian speaking communities are situated in the Estonian Russian border area (in Narva and the oil shale areas). In some settlements the Russian speaking population is up to 95%. Elementary, secondary and higher education in Russian is available in the biggest Russian speaking communities. People who live in Russian speaking areas seldom go out to the other parts of Estonia and most of them don't have any contacts with Estonians.

After 1991, when Estonia gained its independence, almost half of the Russians who have left Estonia, was USSR army personnel with their families. Future emigration may be minimal since the Russian economy is weak and the access to the West is difficult. Many of them don’t have any connections with their roots in Russia and most of them prefer to stay in Estonia.

Estonia is now trying to work out a concrete plan for integrating Russian speaking people into the society. There is established Foundation of Non-Estonians Integration. The Foundation works out overall integration policy of our country organizes projects in order to promote integration process in Estonia (language training, publishing etc.). There are quite a lot of NGOs in Estonia, working with minority and integration issues.

A strategic plan for integration, together with a concrete schedule must be developed. It is needed to create a unit on the ministerial level, which deals with domestic integration issues, based on the example of the European Integration Bureau. One duties of the domestic integration bureau would be to monitor whether the programmes work correctly and as they were planned. Skillfully co-ordinated programmes can save monetary and social resources and this can heighten the chances of reaching the aims of integration.

Therefore, the first strategic requirement is to draft a well-founded mission statement regarding what Estonian society should be like, for example, in twenty years, and to find a means whereby the mission statement can be achieved. For example almost all non-Estonian speaking people should be able to have some knowledge about Estonian culture and traditions as well to express themselves in Estonian. But this must be achieved gradually, step by step, like in Latvia. At first, when a child goes to school, he has one subject in Estonian language, on the second grade he learns two subjects in Estonian and so on, when he finally has all the subjects in Estonian. Once a long-term objective is in place, the tasks of today and tomorrow can be set and settled.

Mutual availability of information is required for the creation of a dialogue between Estonians and non-Estonians. Important is, that non-Estonian speaking people realize, that the world is changing and the life different from Soviet times is also possible. Estonian government wants to make the life easier and better for all its citizens, to integrate different social and minority groups and to provide welfare for all inhabitants. A change of mindset increases the motivation to learn the Estonian language as a beneficial means of communication, which promotes mutual acceptance and increases non-Estonians' ability to participate in society.

It is necessary that mindset and fluency in the official language indicate non-Estonians’ preparedness to tie their future to Estonia. The right to be Estonian citizens and the duty to be loyal to Estonia follow naturally. That means full participation in the building and development of the state, knowledge of the Estonian language sufficient for use in public life, a sense of pride in Estonia's achievements, but also preservation of one's native language and pride in one's own culture.