Lietuvai įstojus į Europos Sąjungą prasidėjo masinė darbo jėgos emigracija. Įvertinęs emigracijos mastą, Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas pripažino, kad emigracija yra didžiausia nekarinė grėsmė Lietuvai. Ypač jaučiamos demografinės pasekmės - kiekvienais metais išvyksta labai daug žmonių, o tai gali ženkliai atsiliepti ekonominiam šalies augimui. Remiantis statistiniais duomenimis, Lietuva viena pirmaujančių pagal emigracijos mąstą šalių Europoje. Daugiausiai išvyksta jauni žmonės, o pagrindinėmis išvykimo priežastimis laikytinas darbo vietų stygius bei nedideli atlyginimai. Lietuvoje dėmesys su emigracija susijusiems klausimams viešoje erdvėje išaugo apie 2005 - 2006 m. Tai paskatino valstybę imtis nuoseklesnio migracijos politikos formavimo ir 2006 m. pabaigoje emigracijos problema pateko į politinę darbotvarkę. Lietuvos viešoji politika migrantų atžvilgiu jau praėjo keletą etapų, tačiau tiesioginė valstybės politikos įtaka išvykusiųjų grįžimui buvo labai maža. Kokybinio tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad sėkmingos politikos pagrindas yra sistemingas šalies vidaus problemų sprendimas, o būtent išvykusiesiems skirtos programos turi atlikti daugiau pagalbinę funkciją. Jiems turi būti sudaromos galimybės gauti išsamią informaciją bei kompetentingą pagalbą. Taip pat turi būti atsižvelgiama į emigrantams itin svarbių klausimų sprendimą. / After Lithuania joined European Union, emigration became a big problem in the country. Emigration is considered to be the most important non-military threat to Lithuania. It has considerable negative influence on demography, also it may have an impact for long term growth. Statistics shows that Lithuanians one of most migratory peoples in Europe. And in fact, mass emigration is nothing new in the country where waves of migrants have been leaving for centuries. Mostly common emigrants are young people. Unemployment and wage differentials between Lithuania and destination countries are the main pushing factors. Most emigrants leave Lithuania due to the lack of jobs and low salaries. Because of this, people don’t feel the motivation to work in Lithuania and decide to emigrate in order to get financial independence. The qualitative research results have revealed that the foundation for successful politics is to systematically solve internal problems, while the programs for those abroad should perform a helping function only, by providing the people with a thorough information and competent help. The most important emigrants’ problems should also be addressed.

This thesis examines 'improvement' of wetland commons in early modern England as a contested process of rapid environmental change. As a flagship project of agrarian improvement, drainage sought to alchemise pastoral fen commons into arable enclosed terra firma and promised manifold benefits for crown, commoners, and commonwealth alike. In practice, however, improvement schemes generated friction between the political and fiscal agendas of governors and projectors and local communities' customary ways of knowing and using wetland commons, provoking the most sustained and violent agrarian unrest of the seventeenth century. This thesis situates the first state-led drainage project in England, in the northern fens of Hatfield Level, in the context of the local politics of custom, national legal and political developments, and international movements of capital, expertise, and refugees; all of which intersected to reshape perceptions and management of English wetlands. Drawing on the analytic perspectives of environmental history, this thesis explores divergent ideas and practices generating conflict over the making of private property, reorganisation of flow, and reconfiguration of lived environments. This thesis argues that different 'environing' practices - both mental and material - distinguished what was seen as an ordered or disordered landscape, determined when and how water was understood as a resource or risk, and demarcated different scales and forms of intervention. Rival visions of the fenscape, ways of knowing land and water, and concepts of value and justice were productive of, and produced by, different practices of management, ownership, and use. Drainage disputes therefore crossed different spheres of discourse and action, spanning parliament, courtroom, and commons to bring improvement into dialogue with fen custom and generate a contentious environmental politics. In seven substantive chapters, this thesis investigates how improvement was imagined, legitimised, and enacted; how fen communities experienced and navigated rapid environmental transformation; and how political, social, and spatial boundaries were reforged in the process. By grounding improvement in the early modern fenscape, this thesis reintegrates agency into accounts of inexorable socio-economic change, illuminates ideas at work in social contexts, and deepens understandings of environmental conflict.