Migration is not just statistical data, but primarily people and their experiences, but the numbers selected by the exhibition’s authors reveal the extent of our mobility, and at the same time become the key to the interesting stories that will be told in the exhibition.
Start of migration
Mass emigration from Lithuania began in 1868 to escape hunger and poverty. The main destination was the United States of America. During the first year of migration, almost a thousand people left Lithuania, most of them from Suvalkija. According to researchers, up to 600,000 Lithuanian residents could leave for the United States alone before the First World War.
Peasants who wanted to officially emigrate had to pay up to 25 rubles for processing documents and get a certificate from the village center that they had no debts, were not criminals, and were not running away from military service.
The first immigrants to the United States took unskilled jobs in factories, railroads, and coal mines. Earnings were low, so four or more people had to live in a room.
Despite the difficulties, it was important for the settlers to maintain their culture: by the end of the First World War, 34 Lithuanian printing houses were operating in the USA, and 175 titles of periodicals were published.
The Search for a Better Life: Then and Now
The second wave of emigration occurred during the period of the Independent Republic of Lithuania due to the lack of work: about 104 thousand inhabitants left Lithuania in 1918-1940, only this time the direction of departure was to the south – Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay.
Jumping forward many years, similar processes took place in 1990. With the opening of the borders, it was easier to go out to see the world, earn money, learn, but brain drain began. Until 2004, before Lithuania joined the European Union, almost 350 thousand emigrants left the country, and
only about 67 thousand immigrants arrived. Since the beginning of independence, about 700 thousand inhabitants have emigrated from Lithuania.
Not by choice
The third wave of emigration was determined by the start of the Second World War. During the 5-6 decades, the country lost almost a million inhabitants due to repression, deportations, imprisonments, and the Holocaust. About 60,000 of them fled in 1944, fearing a second Soviet occupation.
The camps of displaced persons were mostly intellectuals: priests, teachers, writers, engineers, lawyers, teachers – men and women, most of whom were only 26-35 years old.
Living conditions in these camps were poor: a person had only 4 square meters of living space, sometimes two or even three families lived in one room. Despite all the difficulties, about 360 Lithuanians studied together with Latvians and Estonians at the Baltic University, founded in 1946.
After realizing that the occupation regime was established in Lithuania, the refugees had to choose: return back or travel further. In 1948-1952, Lithuanians from German displaced persons camps spread all over the world: 30,000 went to the USA, 7,700 to Canada, 3,000 to Great Britain, 5,000 to Australia, 2,000 to Venezuela, and 7,550 Lithuanians remained in Germany. There were also those who decided to return to Lithuania.
In Lithuania during this period, the Soviets sought to reduce the negative population balance and more actively sovietize the country, therefore residents of other Soviet regions were resettled: in the years 1945-1949 about 180 thousand were resettled, and in the 1960s and 1980s another 170 thousand new residents arrived (including returned exiles and political prisoners ). The number of Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians increased, while the number of Poles and Jews decreased.
Between 1955 and 1961, about 1,300 emigrants from Argentina, Brazil, the USA, Canada, and Uruguay returned to Lithuania. Some of them settled in Vilnius in houses specially built for them, called “amerikanka”.
The people of occupied Lithuania felt like they were in a prison from which they wanted to escape. 20th century In the 1950s and 1980s, 26 Lithuanian residents fled abroad by sea, 15 requested political asylum in foreign countries while on a tourist trip. A couple of people managed to escape by air, and Vladas Šakalys went down in history as the Lithuanian who escaped on foot from the USSR to Sweden, covering 600 kilometers in 20 days. About 320 individuals’ attempts to overcome the Iron Curtain were unsuccessful.
Back to free Lithuania: then and now
Back in 1918, after the restoration of independence, about a quarter of all those who left returned to Lithuania. The returnees brought back not only capital, but also advanced experience, innovations, ideas, knowledge and basketball.
The rest abroad also supported the nascent state: during the first decade of independence, Lithuanians transferred no less than 30 million dollars to the United States in remittances, parcels and checks alone.
It was not so easy to return to the homeland for a long time, but after perestroika was announced, it became easier to travel to the West or for relatives to come to Lithuania. Relatives not only invited to visit, but also came from Australia, Canada, USA and Western Europe themselves. They were received as the greatest guests with four hot meals, and they brought unseen gifts and left dollars.
After Lithuania regained its independence in 1990, history began to repeat itself. 19th century emigrants helped create independent Lithuania in the interwar period, and in the 20th century middle class immigrants rolled up their sleeves and took to work in the 1990s. For example, during the 20 years of its existence, the support organization “Lithuanian Mercy Lift” has provided Lithuania with almost 127 million US dollars of support in the form of medicines, medical equipment, and daily necessities.
This is an impressive amount, because in the first years of independence, 10 dollars was the monthly salary of many Lithuanian residents. Cultural values were sent to Lithuania in thousands of boxes, books were published abroad for libraries, scholarships were awarded for studies and internships abroad.
We are growing
Since 2018, there has been an increase in immigration and a decrease in the number of emigrants. In recent years, the number of arrivals has increased in particular. About 50 percent of them are returning citizens of the Republic of Lithuania, but more and more labor migrants from other countries are coming to Lithuania in search of happiness.
Migration statistics and people’s lives were greatly affected by Russia’s war in Ukraine. As a result, more than 50 thousand Ukrainians fleeing the war arrived in Lithuania in 2022.
The first is like this
The exhibition “Lithuania on a World Size: Our Migration History” will be the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to Lithuanian migration processes since the 19th century. middle to the present day. The scenography of the exhibition will allow you to experience different periods of migration waves and their space, and will surprise you with the unique stories embedded in the everyday scenes of migration.
Visitors will learn why people choose to leave their home country, what kind of environment they leave and what kind of environment they arrive in, what challenges and trials await them on the way, how people affected by migration change and how they themselves change Lithuania and the world by changing.
The exhibition, which is patronized by the President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus, opens at the House of Stories (T. Kosciuškos St. 3, Vilnius) on November 22. 6 p.m. and will operate throughout the year until September 2024. The exhibition will be updated with a series of accompanying events, excursions in the exhibition and educational activities specially created for schoolchildren.
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2024-08-22 19:58:15
