To answer these questions we invited refugees, asylum seekers and migrants from different places, who are currently making Vilnius their home. We asked our listeners to join.
The conversation was held on October 19th in Vilnius, Ramintoja church and later turned into a podcast episode. ©Severina Venckutė
According to the national survey from 2013, there are people of 154 different ethnicities living in Lithuania. But it rarely feels that way. 84% of less than 3 million people in Lithuania are ethnic Lithuanians, 7 percent are Polish and 6 percent are Russian which makes everyone else feel like minority.
And public attitudes confirm that. A recent survey, published by Ethnic Research Institute, showed that 1/3 people in Lithuania wouldn’t rent their apartment to a Muslim. Only 1/4 believe that refugees can enrich a cultural life of Lithuania.
Senturk Celik needed to leave Turkey because of political persecution. He came to Lithuania as a refugee and now works as a barber. ©Severina Venckutė
However, according to the same survey, most Lithuanians haven’t met any migrants from non-EU countries and therefore haven’t got a chance to know them personally. Their views were formed by the media. This event, in which people of more than 10 different nationalities participated, was a rare opportunity to have a cross-cultural conversation.
'A lot of refugees don’t want to live in Lithuania, they go to Germany or to other countries. But I stayed. For a person like me, the most important part is freedom. I am grateful that Lithuania helps us not only in a personal but also in a political way' – Vsevolod Chernozub, political refugee from Moscow. ©Severina Venckutė
