Latvian language
The history of the Latvian language (cf. below) has placed it in a peculiar position for a language of its size whereby it is spoken by a large number of non-native speakers as compared to native speakers. The immigrant and minority population in Latvia is 700,000 people: Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles, and others. The majority of immigrants came to Latvia between 1940–1991; supplementing pre-existing ethnic minority communities (Latvian Germans, Latvian Jews). In a recent survey, 60% of Latvia's ethnic minorities described their knowledge of Latvian as fluent. Fluency in Latvian is prevalent among the younger generations of the minorities.
Russian language in Latvia
On September 9, 2011 NGO "Native Language" submitted a petition to the Central Election Commission signed by 12,516 people on making Russian the second state language in Latvia. From November 1 to November 30, 2011, the Central Election Commission held an official signature gathering, during which 187,378 of the required 154 379 signatures were collected and the proposal was sent to Saeima.