Over the past decade, a number of people equivalent to the population of Pärnu County have arrived in Estonia. Specifically, since 2015, around 110,000 people have left the country, while approximately 200,000 have arrived. A significant portion of the newcomers are Ukrainian refugees, but they do not make up the majority.

These people are our neighbors, coworkers and family members. It is fair to say that Estonia has become a country with notable levels of immigration, which is why the issue warrants broader public discussion. In fact, the topic of immigration was one of the stumbling blocks that proved fatal to the previous governing coalition.

Liberal-leaning right-wing parties — Reform Party, Eesti 200 and Parempoolsed — have repeatedly lamented the labor shortage, expressing a desire to significantly increase labor migration to Estonia. Proposals have included bringing in as many as 10,000 foreign workers per year — roughly equivalent to Estonia's annual birth rate. Estonian society would not be able to adapt to such a large influx of people and migration that is meant to improve our lives would instead start generating a host of social and labor market problems.

The situation is made all the more hypocritical by the fact that, at the same time, there have been suggestions to introduce tuition fees for higher education in Estonia. On one hand, there are complaints about the lack of qualified labor; on the other hand, access to higher education is being restricted, effectively pushing our own young people abroad in search of better opportunities. If the goal is to improve access to skilled labor, the priority should be to train and involve our own people. Only as a last resort should the import of foreign specialists be considered.

Are we even after specialists?

Estonia has access to the labor markets of Japan, the United States and the European Economic Area, all of which offer an unrestricted pool of highly educated and qualified specialists. These countries together represent a labor market of nearly one billion people.

Estonia currently has an immigration quota that allows for the entry of lower-wage workers amounting to 0.1 percent of the permanent population — or about 1,300 people per year. In addition, the quota does not apply to immigrants who are paid at least 1.5 times the average Estonian wage, considered a competitive salary. Calls to further ease these rules now ring hollow, especially considering that the number of job vacancies in Estonia is declining and unemployment is on the rise. The labor market is not lacking in potential candidates. The companies struggling due to labor shortages are those unwilling to pay competitive wages.

Companies whose business models are so weak that they cannot accommodate competitive salaries have been swayed by right-wing parties into believing that mass foreign labor is the solution — effectively subsidizing poor, low-value business models.

By pursuing this path, we are harming our economy in the long term and distorting the labor market by creating artificial downward pressure on wages. Importing cheap labor is a quicker and easier way to make money than investing in development and innovation.

It appears that neoliberals aim to force workers to compete for jobs, rather than employers competing for workers by offering better pay. A worker will accept a lower wage if the alternative is unemployment. Naturally, this drives down the equilibrium wage, because the law of supply and demand is the bedrock of the modern economy.

Moreover, employers bear no responsibility for the social or integration costs. They get to profit from low-paid immigrant labor while shifting the administrative burden onto an underfunded state. These costs are then distributed across society — or worse, ignored altogether.

Integration or segregation?

In Estonia, the link between integration and one's social and legal status is well known from history. A good example is the case of the Estonian or Coastal Swedes. In some regions where they were serfs just like the Estonians, they integrated quickly with the local population. In places where the Coastal Swedes retained a separate legal and social status, integration hardly occurred at all.

If we bring people to Estonia, a shared cultural and value space can only emerge if they have equal opportunities and are met with social respect. However, if we follow the Western European model and bring in cheap labor to perform low-skilled jobs, we will create a class-based society in which foreign workers are treated as an underclass. In the long term, this would erode social cohesion and lead to a segregated society.

In the future, the children of former foreign workers may feel disillusioned and angry, because despite having Estonian citizenship and their parents' lifelong contributions, they would still be expected to perform low-skilled work without social guarantees. Achieving equal status with ethnic Estonians would remain out of reach. This would give rise to glass ceilings and other signs of division, just as we see in parts of Western Europe.

Strong and balanced migration policy

Estonia's migration policy must focus first and foremost on keeping its own people in the country and bringing back those who have left. Newcomers must be carefully selected to ensure our society is able to truly integrate them.

Migration should be based on attracting educated individuals who support Estonia's development — not on the mass import of cheap labor. Trade unions should be given a greater role in setting the immigration quota. This would help avoid situations where the government considers loosening immigration rules at a time when Estonia ranks among the top five countries in Europe with the highest unemployment rates.

Estonia has the potential to build a cohesive and open society where the children of current and future immigrants are not treated as a marginalized underclass. To achieve this, migration policy must be shaped around people — not corporate needs. A person who contributes to Estonian life and the economy must be treated as an equal member of society, one who has a voice regardless of their skin color, religion or surname.

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