There is more talk recently of the need to switch to teaching in Estonian, also criticism according to which putting students with different native tongues in the same class could harm the interests of Estonian-speaking children.

While the transition will probably prove challenging in the short term, we do not really have a choice in the long one. Should we fail to switch to teaching in the official language again, the people who will fail to integrate as a result will need to be picked up by the social welfare system or the prisons. We've failed once, and it has cost us in many ways.

Not speaking Estonian a source of social problems

It's hardly a secret that the occupation also saddled us with an unmodernized Soviet prison system. It is also a widely recognized fact that this was mostly a Russian-speaking environment. Reforms of the prison system have revolved around Estonian national authority. Today, all prison officers speak a high level of Estonian, the prisoners' communication with the state takes place in Estonian and subcultures are no longer proliferating. But there are still challenges.

Estonian prisons have held considerable populations of Russian-speaking individuals since re-independence. This remains to be the case. It is also the key to why Estonia has had so many prisoners and why their numbers are now falling fast.

We don't have to go far to answer the question why we have so many Russian-speaking people in prison. It's a manifestation of problems integrating the offspring of Soviet era immigrants. The claim requires no in-depth research and a quick look at public data is enough.

As of early 2024, Estonian prisons had 45 percent Estonians, 45 percent Russians and around 10 percent everyone else. The percentage of Russians is greater than the combined share of all national minorities in the Estonian population.

If we look at inmates by local government of origin, people from Harju County take first place, with Ida-Viru County in second. This makes sense if only because they are the two most populous counties in Estonia and the country's Russian-speaking population also mainly inhabits them.

All this is not to suggest that Estonian prisons are full of foreign citizens who could just go home. No, 66.5 percent of prisoners are Estonian citizens and 23 percent stateless. Just 195 prisoners or a little more than 10 percent of inmates are foreign citizens, over half of them Russians. So even theoretically, only a small part of inmates could be sent to another country.

We also know that most stateless persons are permanent Estonian residents and therefore tied to our country. This means that prisons mostly holds people who permanently reside in Estonia. The challenge is ours.

The average inmate is getting older. The average age of a prisoner is 41.4 years today. There are no major differences between Estonians and Russians here. But the average age of stateless inmates is higher than that of Estonian citizens at 44 versus 40 years. We could ask whether people who are less integrated spend a longer time in our company, The answer is probably that they do.

Statistics Estonia publishes data on the composition of our population by native and foreign origins. The 2024 data shows that the highest proportion of people of foreign origin is among residents aged 30 to 74. This broadly correlates with prison population figures. It is noteworthy that the non-native speaking population is more represented among inmates than in the population as a whole.

From the perspective of prisons, there is also good news: earlier generations are gradually aging out of the penal system. This is supported by the continuous increase in average age and the knowledge that the proportion of descendants of immigrants is smaller among our younger residents. Age, as we know, is the best deterrent to recidivism. However, this does not mean that integration issues are resolved.

Estonian proficiency a prerequisite for a cohesive society

Estonians' self-determination largely happens through language. Speaking Estonian is an easier way to be accepted. We also know from various studies that speaking the official language is a component of labor market competitiveness.

Having no Estonian proficiency hurts one's chances of finding employment and income. Poor language skills also make it difficult to obtain a good education, which in turn is necessary for a successful and self-sufficient life. Poor living conditions lead to far more critical problems.

Internal security experts understand that radicalization is less a global and more a locally-rooted phenomenon. When members of society do not feel valued and when a group is cut off from the opportunities enjoyed by the native population, people start protesting the social order.

The result is conflict, social problems and reduced feelings of security. In some cases also radicalization. The problem is more general, and looking to the future, we'll need to keep in mind that failure to integrate new immigrants will cause the same kind of problems we're seeing among Russian-speakers now.

In addition to our own experience, we have another cautionary example. It seems that Sweden has arrived where we found ourselves in the 1990s. Having a lot of immigrants who have not integrated has resulted in a wave of crime and social problems that feature daily on the news.

One of the results is the Swedes' plan for tougher criminal policy and more prisons to boost the number of prisoner places threefold. It is hard to believe in a country that for decades had the lowest number of inmates per capita and has served as an example for others, but that is the reality today.

We at prisons know well how people come to us. Much goes wrong and much-needed support is often unavailable. To rectify the shortcomings people have had in their previous lives, we've also had to teach Estonian. In 2022-2023, a total of 869 people attended language courses in Estonian prisons. This figure is 287 for this year.

More extensive Estonian courses in prisons started back in 2007 based on the calculation that lacking official language proficiency was an obstacle for resocialization as well as the realization that existing schools in- and outside of prisons were unable to teach Estonian at the required level. And if you can't influence others, you'll have to try and do it yourself, the Prison Service decided at the time.

Our omissions come back to punish our children

The problem now in need of heroic solving is the result of our own past decisions and complacency. Stalling the switch to teaching in Estonian in all schools was one such omission. The development but also security of our society depends on its level of cohesion. Language occupies a prominent position for Estonians and the required level of cohesion simply won't happen without widespread proficiency.

We have a choice now. We can either learn from our mistakes and plot a clear course for future immigrants at least to enter an Estonian-speaking environment of exactingness but also support. Or we can simply wait for the social problems of new immigrants to escalate, which will inevitably translate into more work for the prisons, and it's all downhill from there.

We must all take a look in the mirror and ask ourselves whether we're sufficiently exacting and supportive for our part. I hope that both the Estonian and Russian-speaking parts of the population will finally start taking our shared future seriously and work together. Because we need to be more demanding and more decisive when it comes to our decisions lest our children pay the price.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!