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
Russian became the language of State business, and administrative positions were largely filled by ethnic Russians. In addition to that, Russian served as the language of inter-ethnic communication among the increasingly urbanized non-Russian ethnic groups, making cities major centers for the use of Russian language and made functional bilingualism in Russian a minimum necessity for the local population.