EN.DELFI
As Great Britain prepares to
leave the European Union (EU), fellow countrymen returning from emigration
admit: the decision to return is determined both by psychological and emotional
arguments, not by economic reasons or fear of the consequences of Brexit.
“Eksemigrantai” – the Public Enterprise (VšĮ) that unites the
community of approximately 20,000 emigrants and citizens who have already
returned to Lithuania – initiated a survey in January aiming to measure
prevailing moods before the approaching Brexit.
As much as 32 percent out of the 1,560 people who took part in the survey
stated that the main factor making them decide to return is the longing for
their homeland. For another 30 percent, this is determined by the opportunity
to be near their close relatives, whereas one in five respondents named
children as the most important cause of their resolution.
“The main reasons why emigrants return to live in Lithuania basically are
emotional: the longing for their homeland and the wish to be with their close
relatives. This denies an ever-strengthening stereotype that one of the main
reasons for coming back is anxiety and insecurity regarding Brexit,”
Dovydas Petrošius, President of the Association of Ex-Emigrants, says.
The fact that the longing for home may be very strong, and can motivate one to
create one’s life from scratch in their homeland again is confirmed by
Mindaugas Sragauskas. He is a resident of Klaipėda who returned to Lithuania
after several years of living in the United Kingdom. He started working as the
Manager of Safety at Work in “Germanika”, which belongs to the SBA
group of companies.
“I spent 15 years in the United Kingdom. To be honest, I always cherished
the thought that I would come back; it seemed natural to me. My family and I
had already made such a decision once before. We came back in 2007 and found
that Lithuania was full of enthusiasm and ambitions. Unfortunately, the feeling
that those ambitions were unreasonable turned out to be true. So we returned to
England when the crisis started,” says Mindaugas, who has been creating
his life in Lithuania for half a year already.
According to him, the present decision was dictated by his heart and the wish
to be near to his close relatives. “My family had been living in Lithuania
for two and a half years already, whereas I was living and working between
England and Lithuania. My working conditions were great but I understood that I
don’t want to live like that anymore, and that I must listen to my heart. So I
came back and settled here. There are enough opportunities to work, create and
consolidate one’s position, while the quality of life is better here than when
working abroad,” Mindaugas is certain.
Emotions can simply explode Psychologist Gediminas Navaitis notes that the
emotional aspects of emigration are often underestimated while return, just
like emigration, is characterized by waves. “Usually, a person subconsciously
decides whether he is going away for a long time before emigrating. If yes, he
feels that the social network that he is leaving will rupture naturally and
rare returns will not compensate the longing for his homeland. Therefore, he
decides that the ties to the homeland won’t be important any more.
A person is going away for a certain defined period of time with a clear goal
in mind – to earn some money, acquire education – and come back afterwards, is
another case. Both situations are psychologically different but those who are
going away for a longer period of time may experience a strong wish to simply
come back home,” G. Navaitis says. According to him, emigration in waves
is a clearly perceived fact which, in our case, also clearly demonstrates that
we can compete with other EU countries in respect of salaries in certain
professions.
People arriving in Lithuania – twice as much as last year Business also feels
that the number of returning people is increasing. Companies get more
applicants to jobs not only from Great Britain but also from other countries.
The country’s companies, like Žemaitijos Pienas and SBA group, have been
actively inviting the citizens who have emigrated to come back and offering
jobs to them for quite some time. The companies are seeing the first results
already.
“We notice that the emigrants who are returning most often are interested
in positions requiring higher qualification in our companies. It is also
important to emphasize that talented, competent and motivated people who have
new skills and ideas are coming back,” Edis Kasperavičius, Staff Manager
of SBA, says. According to him, there are some emigrants who have returned
during recent years in each company of the group.
According to preliminary data of the Department of Statistics, a total of 6,842
immigrated to Lithuania during the first two months of this year, which is
twice as much as last year at the same time. Of course, some of them are
foreigners coming to Lithuania. However, according to last year’s data, the number
of our fellow countrymen coming back to Lithuania is increasing and constitutes
over a half of all immigrants.
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