“They come suddenly, they can be fined”: it is becoming increasingly difficult to be Russian-speaking in Estonia

Having a residence permit in the country spoke about the problems

Against the background of tough laws on knowledge of the state language in Latvia, the threat may hang over the inhabitants of nearby Estonia. There, of course, everything is not so critical, Russian citizens, under the threat of deportation, are not forced to confirm their knowledge of the local language, but the Russian-speaking population is gradually beginning to experience some anxiety about this, looking around towards their neighbors. This was told to MK by Elena, a resident of Estonia, who has had a residence permit for many years. The fact is that the so-called language service has been operating in the country for a long time, from which, as they say, do not expect anything good. She is unpredictable and, at times, merciless.

– In order to work in Estonia, a Russian person who has a residence permit in this country often needs to confirm knowledge of the language. Of course, this primarily concerns state institutions. For example, if you work at a school, you should know Estonian at a fairly decent level. It is checked simply: the language service comes and communicates with you, – the young woman says. – And, interestingly, no one warns a person about this. Impossible to get ready. Previously, this service never came to private organizations, but now it can swoop in anywhere. And this, of course, is always a lot of stress and a lottery. For Russians who live in Estonia and even work in positions that do not require special knowledge of the language, problems may arise. For example, a language inspector may come to a cleaning lady in a store and check her knowledge of the language. The cleaning lady must also know the Estonian language at a certain level.

What happens if you don’t pass the test?

– Then you can be given an order to go to study at the courses and then retake it again. At the same time, you will attend courses at your own expense, no employer will pay you for them. And what is interesting, you will not need a language, you will not even communicate with anyone. It’s just for taking the language service exam. After all, Russians have their own social circle, Russian. Or they can be fined in general. My friends have received such fines. One for 100 euros, the other for 400. Maybe more. And this is a decent amount by local standards. This is practically the minimum pension or an impressive part of the monthly salary. It depends on the mercy of the inspectors, as they personally decide. It turns out that sometimes it makes no sense to work at all. And if you don’t pass it again, they can even force the employer to fire you.

– And how do our compatriots get out of the situation then?

– You can get on the labor exchange, indicating that you do not know the language. By the way, there is an interesting nuance here. As far as I heard, the state allocates funds for people to go to language courses, but for some reason the exchange is not profitable, so I know that there were many refusals for some formal reasons to those who asked to be given the opportunity to study. It is preferable for the agency to simply pay unemployment or poverty benefits than to pay courses to a person. For example, they give me a poverty allowance of 180 euros, I am not working now. Before, when I had a very small salary, and I quit, the unemployment benefit was about 8 euros per day. This is not much, but it was enough to pay utility bills. By the way, a communal apartment in Estonia is incomparably more expensive than in Russia. However, as throughout Europe. At the same time, they could tell me, they say, go, learn the language and get a job, but so far they do not insist.

– Well, has the tough situation with the state language in Latvia somehow affected life in Estonia?

– It seems to me that Estonia is too small to unfold such a large-scale story in it .. Although people are actively discussing all this and even being nervous. There are a lot of compatriots here, and if you seriously take, for example, to deport those who did not pass the language, then more than half of the Russians will disappear from the country. In Estonia, of course, there are many pensioners from Russia who live here, have a residence permit and receive a pension, but their knowledge of the language is not tested. According to the law, invalids, pensioners and other unprotected categories are exempted from inspection by the services. At the same time, many young active people are now leaving the country voluntarily, selling apartments, because they understand that for us, Russians, in fact, there is no special future here.