There are not a few who are looking for a model to deal with the economic crisis we are experiencing: some want to seek a solution in Iceland ostensibly idealising a case with many shortcomings; others, especially those who advocate cuts and economic austerity, have praised Latvia in recent months. Two years ago, this small “rescued” country has achieved a drop in the unemployment rate and significant economic growth following strong internal devaluation, which has led to the extreme policy of wage cuts and rebates.

The reality, however, is not rosy. Its growth, which could repeat the 5.5% rate in 2012, is still a long way from the recovery, the 23% decline it suffered in the three-year period 2008-2010. Along the way, the country is becoming more unfair, increasing the distances between rich and poor. The situation is so serious that its future is at stake as a nation. A simple fact should be enough to ignite all the alarms: twenty-two years ago, when independence was declared, Latvia had almost 2.7 million citizens, now it does not reach two million (the last census did it artificially). In other words, it has lost more than 25% of the population, as a country that has suffered a harsh and terrible war. That, and nothing else, explains why over the past two years Latvia has managed to reduce its unemployment rate from 20% to 15%. We will look carefully at the official data at the end of 2009, when the unemployment rate hit the roof, there were almost one million people working, but now the number is around 850,000 people. They have therefore continued to destroy jobs.

Since independence, Latvian politics has become a neoliberal paradise. As a result, life expectancy has been reduced, poverty has spread and emigration has increased. Things have hardly changed since then, even though there are better times (thanks to the financial bubble) or worse, Latvia has generally lost population every year and has launched new neoliberal policies. The latter are not a majority, but since the country is divided between the Latvians (2/3) and the Slavo-Latvians (1/3), every time the elections come, the Latvians vote to the right-wing parties and the Slavs to the left, Latvia is the only EU country that has always had a right-wing government. The ethnic struggle has completely blurred the right and left axis of the city.

Despite the obstacles, Latvians have a state, through which citizens who are abroad can still maintain their identity. All the elements of banal nationalism are on your side. Among others, they have national passports, embassies and selections to promote sentimental identification. That's right, symbols alone don't live a nation. Almost 40% of young people who have gone to work since the beginning of the crisis have gone abroad. No wonder that, thanks to English, they speak almost as well as the mother tongue, they can go abroad to seek better living conditions. In view of this, demographers warn that Latvians may disappear for up to four generations. In this globalized world, small nations need to be very careful if they want to secure their future. These are times of great mobility and if you don't guarantee the good living conditions in your home, you can get rid of it.