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Good practice Imported

Latvia's Remigration Coordinator Network

Latvia · Riga · See the Latvia profile · See the Riga profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 93% 43/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Since 2018, Latvia has run a network of regional remigration coordinators helping citizens abroad move home, assisting 2,456 returnees in 2021-2023 — a modest fraction of the ~420,000-strong diaspora amid decades of severe population loss to emigration.

2456
Individuals assisted returning to Latvia (2021-2023)
3.07 million EUR
Annual state budget allocation (2021-2023 plan)
2.9 million EUR, over
Annual state budget allocation (2024-2026 plan)
934
'2x2' youth seminar participants
2156
'3x3' family gathering attendees
150000
Diaspora members engaged by LIAA in export/investment promotion (2024)
8200 approx.
Total remigrants recorded nationally (2023)
420000 over, people
Estimated Latvian diaspora

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, regional remigration coordinators (Kurzeme, Zemgale, Vidzeme, Latgale, Riga), State Employment Agency (NVA), Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA)
Period
2018-present
Region (NUTS)
LV00
Keywords
remigration, diaspora policy, employment services, regional coordination

Context

Latvia's remigration support system was established in 2018 in response to two decades of severe emigration. Academic research by economist Mihails Hazans (University of Latvia) found that around 100,000 residents with higher education left Latvia between 2000 and 2016, and a peer-reviewed Intereconomics study (2014) documented that Latvia lost roughly 15% of its population in the preceding decade (11 percentage points to emigration, 4 to demographic decline), with over 80% of emigrants aged 18-35.

Objectives

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs coordinates a network of regional remigration coordinators to help citizens abroad move home, working alongside the State Employment Agency (NVA/EURES) on job-market access and the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) on diaspora business and investment ties.

Activities

Services include practical relocation casework, employment information, business grants for returnees, and cultural reintegration programmes such as the '2x2' youth seminars and '3x3' family gatherings, delivered across Latvia's five planning regions (Riga, Vidzeme, Kurzeme, Zemgale, Latgale).

Results

The coordinator network assisted 2,456 individuals in returning to Latvia over 2021-2023, backed by dedicated state budget lines of roughly €3.07 million annually (2021-2023 plan) and over €2.9 million annually (2024-2026 plan). The '2x2' youth seminars drew 934 participants and the '3x3' family gatherings 2,156 attendees. LIAA separately reported engaging 150,000 diaspora members in export and investment promotion in 2024.

Conclusions

For context, Latvia's official statistics recorded about 8,200 total remigrants in 2023 alone, meaning the dedicated coordinator programme reaches only a fraction of overall return migration, and Latvia's diaspora is estimated at over 420,000 people — a large base still living abroad relative to the numbers actively assisted. The LIAA-branded 'Magnetic Latvia' is a general nation-marketing umbrella and not itself a dedicated relocation programme with its own outcome data.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Dedicated state budget lines of approximately €3.07 million/year (2021-2023) and over €2.9 million/year (2024-2026) — classified as medium cost for a national coordination programme.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Running continuously since 2018 with two consecutive multi-year budget/planning cycles — classified as medium.
Staffing & skills
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia — coordinates the network, Regional remigration coordinators (Riga, Vidzeme, Kurzeme, Zemgale, Latgale), State Employment Agency (NVA/EURES), Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA)

Conditions for success

  • Multi-agency coordination spanning foreign affairs, employment services and investment promotion
  • Dedicated, consecutive multi-year state budget lines (2021-2023 and 2024-2026 plans)
  • Regional coverage across all five of Latvia's planning regions

Common failure modes

  • Reach (2,456 assisted returns over three years) is small relative to Latvia's ~420,000-strong diaspora and the ~8,200 total annual remigrants recorded nationally
  • No independent evaluation isolates the coordinators' causal effect from the broader remigration trend

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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