Is Estonia becoming more socially stratified and xenophobic? That’s what the controversial Estonian Human Development Report 2009, published by the Estonian Cooperation Assembly, says. The report shows that the intolerance against minorities is growing among Estonians, the salaries of ethnic Russians are 10-15 percent less than Estonians, and the country is subject to increasing poverty and social stratification. The report raised eyebrows when it was presented at the National Library of Estonia on Monday. Estonia’s Prime Minister Andrus Ansip was in attendance, and he began disputing the results in front of attendees, saying that the report’s finding that Estonia has the most unequal income distribution in the European Union is “a lie” and that there are no statistics indicating that. “On the contrary,” Ansip said. “As the poverty issue is quite real in the EU, then a statistical fact repeatedly stressed … is that over the past ten years, the unevenness of income distribution in the EU declined the most rapidly in Estonia.” According to Statistics Estonia from 2000 to 2007 differences in incomes decreased in Estonia, but during the same period the relative poverty rate increased, primarily among those above age 50.
Xenophobia ignored
As has occurred in other European countries, the economic crisis has increased ethnic tensions in Estonia. The report shows that since 1999 intolerance has grown towards people of different race by 9 percent to 24 percent, toward Jews by 11 percent to 22 percent, toward immigrants by 10 percent to 31 percent and Muslims by 11 percent to 33 percent. Ansip did not dispute these figures, and his conservative administration has done little to address race/ethnicity issues in Estonia, focusing instead on streamlining the budget for eurozone entry and dealing with the economic crisis. The report puts a lot of responsibility on the media for increasing negative attitude towards those groups. “During the past few years, in the opinion of many people, there has been too much discussion on topics related to the Holocaust, which has increased repelling attitudes instead of understanding,” the report noted. The events of 9/11 gave Muslims a lot of negative attention, and the Bronze Soldier incident strained tensions between ethnic Russians and ethnic Estonians.
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