I was living in Latvia and still am. There were no 'widespread protests'. There was exactly one notable protest, organised by a political party, after which a hundred or so people made a shouting match at the Parliament building while a another hundred or so hooligans used the confusion to burn a couple cars and loot liquor shops. It was over in a couple hours. There were no significant protests since. And most of the people that left the country plan or have returned, with extra capital and new experience. I recently talked to a glass pane installer that had 15 years experience in Riga, then worked a couple years in Germany because of the crisis and there found out how wrong all his work has been, how inefficient, how bad on long term quality. Our immigrants will learn a lot and come back to make our country better. I have.