Muslim Educational Migrants in Latvia - Cultural Approach

After Latvia joined the EU in 2004, the amount of foreign students in Latvian universities rapidly increased from 1676 students in 2004 to 8806 in 2017. Statistics of last 3 years also show that approximately 2 000 of foreign students are Muslims and this amount has a tendency to grow. The purpose of the study was to learn the habits and obstacles of the consumption of culture by Muslim students in Latvia, as well as their integration level to cultural and social life. To achieve the research purpose, the survey among 178 respondents - foreign Muslim students studying in Riga - was conducted. The results were processed, using analysis of frequencies and ranking. The most important findings are that 40% of respondents are visiting cultural events at least once a month, but they choose entertainment possibilities like cinema, night clubs and public events, which are not linked with a language obstacle. For newcomers the most important obstacle for visiting cultural events is luck of the information, for long stayer - the language barrier. Most than half of young Muslim migrants are filling integrated into the routine life, but just 12 % are integrated into the cultural life of Latvia too.