The Rise and Demise of the Soviet-Made Housing Shortage in the Baltic Countries

This chapter reviews the factors underlying the rapid emergence and subsequent narrowing of the Soviet-made housing shortage (i.e. the rise and slow demise of underurbanisation) in the Baltics, corroborating the analysis with findings from archival research on housing construction and allocation in the Latgalian city of Daugavpils between 1945 and 1991. It is suggested that the dynamics of the housing shortage, and the way the Soviet authorities attempted to tackle it, acted as a powerful alternative source of housing and socio-spatial differentiation, and that tracing the priorities assigned by economic planners to the different actors involved in housing construction facilitates the decoding of the Baltic residential landscapes. The chapter starts by portraying the roots of housing shortage, including the radical suppression of market forces and the housing nationalisation shock of the post-WWII years. It then discusses housing construction, housing tenure forms and housing allocation, and describes the specific experience of Daugavpils within these areas in order to shed light on the overall context of residential differentiation in the Baltics

Labour Standards and Labour Migration in the new Europe: Post-communist legacies and perspectives

International audienceThe post-communist New Member States of Eastern Europe have experienced significant forms of labour exploitation, with deterioration in labour standards and the working environment. This is leading to increasing labour force `exit' on a scale not hitherto anticipated. Migrant workers from the Baltic states, paid lower wages and with poorer working conditions, have been at the centre of a number of high-profile labour disputes in the EU-15. This article uses Latvia as a case study in order to discuss the implications of increasing labour migration for the New Member States and for labour standards in the wider EU