A/HRC/22/49 their language, culture and identity. Where historical restrictions have been imposed and subsequently repealed, legal and administrative measures may be required to ensure that those affected may legally register and use their preferred spoken and written names. Birth registration and other relevant forms should, wherever possible, be available in the languages spoken by large minority populations. H. Participation in economic and political life 62. To participate fully in economic life and be able to benefit from all opportunities in equality with others it is necessary for minorities to be proficient in the national or State language, certainly if they wish to move beyond local or regional minority areas in which minority languages are used. In some cases the geographic and economic mobility of minorities is severely restricted by lack of proficiency in the national language. Due to language issues, labour market access for minorities may be restricted to certain jobs and localities, with implications for income and the opportunities for employment. Minorities may be restricted to low income or seasonal jobs in such areas as manual labour. 63. Minorities have reported barriers to their recruitment and continuing employment in the public or government sectors, for example in situations in which the official national language has changed, such as in some countries of the former Soviet Union that gained independence in the 1990s. Even in cases where minorities are proficient in the national language, examples of discrimination against non-native speakers have been reported. In some countries, following conflict or occupation, for example, minorities and returnee communities report that restrictions are placed on their access to employment, and that jobs they previously held are given only to the dominant or majority ethnic and linguistic community. There should be equal access to public sector employment for members of all linguistic communities. In some circumstances evidence suggests that minorities have left their country of residence to return to kin States on the basis of real or perceived restrictions to their opportunities for employment and participation in public life due to language and nationality factors. 64. Some minorities have reported economic disadvantages and discrimination resulting from policies of population resettlement and mass migration of dominant ethnic and linguistic groups to minority areas. This may result in the marginalization of the minority groups’ languages, which are gradually replaced by the dominant group’s language as an area’s lingua franca and the primary language for employment in a region. Those who are native to the region but do not speak the dominant language have reported becoming ineligible for State employment and finding themselves at a disadvantage for virtually all jobs compared to settlers who may be given priority. Where administrative and government structures are controlled by the dominant community, minority group members report that those employers hire those belonging to their own ethnic and linguistic group. 65. Engaging in political life and decision-making processes at all levels also commonly requires proficiency in the official State language. However this can potentially exclude some linguistic minorities from fulfilling their right to participate effectively in political life and to be involved in decision-making processes that may affect them or the territories on which they live. In autonomous regions or states where certain languages are granted official status, those who do not speak the official language may be barred from standing for or holding certain public offices. Such challenges must be recognized and addressed to ensure that linguistic minorities are not unfairly excluded from political life at any level. Decentralized, federal and autonomous political structures are often beneficial to the political participation of linguistic minorities. 66. Proficiency in the State language is sometimes a requirement for access to citizenship and has proved problematic for some who lack such proficiency. While it is 17