Nationals through tax: claiming citizenship as fiscal subjects in Latvia and Estonia La nationalité par l'impôt : revendiquer la citoyenneté en tant que sujets fiscaux en Lettonie et en Estonie

Abstract

This article follows the efforts of Russian-speaking (non-)citizens to join the national Latvian or Estonian collectives, primarily as fiscal subjects. The Russian-speaking residents of Daugavpils in Latvia and Sillamäe in Estonia, who feel excluded to various degrees, use their taxpayer subjectivity to claim (full) membership in the political community as good, deserving, and loyal citizens. In the popular and scholarly imaginations, taxation and citizenship are often inextricably linked. This article looks at how Russian-speaking (non-)citizens employ taxes to navigate national and neoliberal ideals of citizenship in Latvia and Estonia, and why they focus on taxes in particular. It also asks how effective taxes are in accessing (full) political membership in Latvia and Estonia. In doing so, I build upon and further contribute to the growing body of anthropological research on tax, arguing that the actual relationship between citizenship and taxation is always contingent on the political context, and should be studied and ethnographically unpacked rather than presumed and taken for granted.