My husband and I were in Finland and the Baltics three years ago. Latvia is very depressing. There are still many Russians living there.

They were given jobs and the Latvians removed from jobs under the Soviets. When the USSR left, Russians lost their jobs. There are whole neighborhoods of Russians in poor suburbs. They clearly have alcohol problems.

Latvia was strong-armed to take in refugees. A few Latvians openly discussed not wanting any as they had economic problems enough without importing refugees. Also, refugees do not fit in. Latvia has so many pale, white, Slavic people that I would have thought I was in Russia.

I did a search on refugees in Latvia and found out that not many refugees have been sent to the Baltics and that most head out as soon as their benefits run out. See Resettled in the Baltics, refugees flee for wealthier lands, By Andrius Sytas and Gederts Gelzis, Reuters, November 28, 2016.

Of the Baltic states, my guess is Latvia is the worst off. Not enough freebies there and the refugees didn’t choose to go there in the first place. How unfair!