The country’s leader suggests that an economic immigrant should be allowed to work only for a limited time, and after that period, they should leave Lithuania for at least six months – supposedly to avoid family reunification, which would lead to an even faster increase in the number of immigrants.
The head of the Lithuanian Trade Unions Alliance, Audrius Cuzanauskas, says that the temporary nature will encourage foreigners not to follow the rules in force here, and the number of unskilled labor will increase.
“They train those workers for two months on how they could work and at least meet the minimum requirements, although supposedly qualified labor is being brought in. Now we see that it is already being brought in with some violations, so it will be even worse,” he said.
President’s advisor Evelina Gudzinskaitė says that newcomers do not learn the language, do not seek a career, and do not adapt to the local culture.
“The majority of the workforce currently coming to Lithuania does not seek that and does not even make efforts to try to achieve it. They just need to earn money,” she claimed.
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According to E. Gudzinskaitė, if the number of foreigners increased, their communities would become more sedentary: “This means they would become attraction factors to draw even more foreigners, and such foreigner communities would form.”
Earlier, criticism was also expressed by the Minister of Social Security and Labor, Inga Ruginienė, saying that such changes would not reduce migrants in Lithuania, but the number of foreigners staying illegally and unwilling to follow our country’s rules would increase.
If the Seimas approves the amendments proposed by G. Nausėda, they would come into effect next year.
As BNS wrote, G. Nausėda proposes to legalize a new model of fixed-term work permits for foreigners, which would speed up the processing of immigrant applications and require leaving Lithuania for at least six months after a two-year work permit expires. In mid-July, the Seimas approved such presidential proposals after consideration.
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