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MidEast Migrants Will Make Estonians Love Russians

© AP Photo / Boris GrdanoskiA migrant, hiding under a train, tries to sneak on a train towards Serbia, at the railway station in the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija, on Monday, Aug. 17, 2015. Over 1,000 migrants from Middle East, Asia and Africa, enter Macedonia daily from Greece, heading north through the Balkans on their way to the more prosperous European Union countries
A migrant, hiding under a train, tries to sneak on a train towards Serbia, at the railway station in the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija, on Monday, Aug. 17, 2015. Over 1,000 migrants from Middle East, Asia and Africa, enter Macedonia daily from Greece, heading north through the Balkans on their way to the more prosperous European Union countries - Sputnik International
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The majority of Estonians are against letting refugees from Syria and Africa settle in their small Baltic country of just 1.3 million, a US newspaper reported on Friday.

The Estonian government has decided to build a wall on the border with Russia to fend off Russian “trespassers,” Estonian newspaper Postimees said. - Sputnik International
Great Wall of Estonia: Tallinn to Fence Off Border With Russia
According to a TNS Emor poll commissioned by the Estonian government in June, when Estonia and many other countries dug their heels in on an EU-wide mandatory quota system to relocate refugees, 42 percent of respondents said they were against admitting refugees, compared with 32 percent who welcome them, The Christian Science Monitor wrote.

The focus of the ongoing debate is the controversy over Estonia’s plans to take in about 200 refugees over the next two years.

Even though Estonia sits far from the chaotic border of Greece and Macedonia and the burned-down refugee centers in Germany, it is nevertheless focused intently on what obligation it has in Europe’s migrant crisis, a discussion that has been agitated by conservative political forces.

The lack of experience, coupled with uncertain economic times and euroskepticism fueled across the continent by the migrant crisis and the latest Greek bailout, have allowed anti-immigrant, anti-EU forces to gain a foothold.

And Estonians' instinct to preserve their culture and language, given their history, makes it easier to inflame a sense of nationalism.

Right after World War II, only 2.7 percent of the population was comprised of ethnic minorities.

In 1989 that surged to 38.5 percent, mostly Soviet Union residents who came – or were forced to migrate – to work in heavy industry.

“This was perceived as a kind of existential threat to the existence of Estonians,” said Raivo Vetik, a professor of comparative politics at Tallinn University.

With the Russian-speaking minority continuing to be Estonians’ main integration problem, and with new refugees coming in many are asking why there are still so many gaps between Estonian and Russian speakers, Vetik said.

“There are arguments that Estonians and Russians are so similar.… We are much more similar compared to those new people coming in, so we should integrate fast, or more efficiently," Raivo Vetic emphasized.

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