31 new citizens: Latvia expands its collective with a reserve of local rock music enthusiasts

The Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs has announced that another 31 people will acquire Latvian citizenship, and the statistics are interesting as always — 55% Russians, 16% Belarusians, 10% Ukrainians, plus one Pole, Tatar and Lithuanian. So the classic Latvian multicultural mixed company that could form a good rock band.

Yes, yes, rock music! Because where better for new citizens to start their Latvian life than with the awareness that Liepaja is Latvia's rock capital, where legends are born? While Riga is thinking about how to integrate these 31 people into society, we already know — send them to Liepaja to some "Prāta Vētra" concert. After the first song they'll understand what the true Latvian soul is.

Particularly touching that the office reminds us — with citizenship, the non-citizen passport is no longer valid. Well yes, logical! As if to say: now you are real Latvians, so you can forget that you were once something else. As old wise Jānis from Grīzupe in Liepaja used to say: "Citizenship is like a rock album — until you listen to it all the way through, you don't know if it's yours."

Since 1995, 150,937 people have acquired citizenship through naturalization. That's almost like all of Liepaja, multiplied by three! And each of them now has the right to proudly say they live in a country where there is Liepaja — a city where the wind sings rock music and the sea keeps the beat.