The main factors of migration and the structure of migrants in post-communist Georgia
Abstract
The steady growth of emigration during the Post-Soviet period (1992-2014) under conditions of zero natural population increase had a profound effect on the social-demographic and economic development of Georgia?. Since 1992, the population size has decreased by almost 1/3, coming to 3.7 million by 2018.
The emigration was basically a process involving three factors. First came ethnic migration, when, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, members of tens of thousands of other nationalities living in Georgia returned to their historical homeland. As a result, the share of Georgians in the total population increased from 69.7% to 86.8% in 1989-2017. The second factor was the emigration of a large mass of refugees from lost territories (Abkhazia and South Ossetia), and the third factor was a social-economic collapse.
The high level of emigration caused the deformation of the population’s age-sex structure. The median age of the population of Georgia increased by nearly 8 years, which is the highest figure among the Post-Soviet countries.
From amongst the many aspects of migration, there are two that deserve special attention: the rise of the emigration of women (although men still exceed women among the emigrants) and of students (youth). Lately, the educational qualification of emigrants has been systematically rising, making the issue of “the brain drain” from the country ever more critical.
A strong motivation to emigrate is found among young students, nearly 48% of whom intend to go abroad in order to study and work within the next five years.
Downloads
References
Aptsiauri G., Sulaberidze A. (2019, June), Challenges of citizens mobility between Georgia and European Union based on free visa liberation policy. In R. Abesadze (Ed.), Report of International conference: Proceedings of Materials of International Scientific Conference “current problems of formation of “Green economy”, (pp. 494-500). Tbilisi. Retrieved from http://www.pgie.tsu.ge/contentimage/konferenciebi/conf.kreb.2019.pdf
Archvadze J. (2013). The effect of labor migration on the characteristic indicator of labor market situation (The case of Georgia). Migration, 6, 104-118 (In Georgian).
Archvadze J. (2017). The Nature and Scale of Repatriation Money of Migrant Workers (On the example of Georgia and its land neighbors). Migration,8, 79-96 (In Georgian).
Denisenko M.B., CHudinovskikh O.S. (2018). Dolgosrochnaya migratsiya mezhdu stranami SNG [Long-term migration between the CIS countries]. In M.B. Denisenko, R.V. Dmitriyeva, V.V. Elizarov (Eds.), Demograficheskoye razvitiye post-sovetskogo proctranstva (pp. 182-205) [Demographic development of the post-Soviet space]. Moscow: Ekonomicheskiy fakultet MGU im. M.V. Lomonosova Retrieved from https://www.econ.msu.ru /sys/raw.php? o=44887& p=attachment (In Russ.).
Institut demografii I sotsiologii Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta Il’i [Institute of Demography and Sociology Ilia State University] (2017). Materialys ot siologicheskogo issledovaniya. Studencheskaya predraspolozhennost’ k migratsii» [Materials of the sociological research. “Migratory disposition of students”] (In Georgian).
Shelia M. (2017). Women’s Emigration from Georgia. Migration, 8, 114-133 (In Georgian).
Sulaberidze A. (2008). Distorted Migration Temps: Cui Bono? The Caucasus and Globalization. Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies, 2(1), 82. Retrieved from http://www.ca-c.org/c-g-online/2008/journal_eng/c-g-1/k-g-E-01-2008.pdf
Sulaberidze A. (2017). Methodological Problems of Statistical Accounting of Migration and its Results in Georgia. Migration, 8, 70-77 (In Georgian).
Sulaberidze A., Tsuladze G., Sulaberidze V., Gomelauri N. (2016). Census Statistic Problems in Demographic Cases in Georgia. In A. Sulaberidze (Ed.), Collection of works: Problems of Demography and Sociology (pp. 6-17). Tbilisi.
Tsuladze G. (2016). Demographic yearbook of Georgia 2015 (In English, in French, and in Georgian).
Tsuladze G., Maglaperidze N., Vadachkoria A. (2005). Demographic yearbook of Georgia 2004. UNFPA (In English, in French, and in Georgian).
Tsuladze G., Maglaperodze N., Vadachkoria A. (2002). Demographic overview of Georgia (1960-2000). UNFPA. Tbilisi. Retrieved from https://www.tsu.ge/data/file_db/ faculty_social_political/DEMOGRAPHIC%20OVERVIEW%20OF%20GEORGIA.pdf
Tsuladze G., Sulaberidze A. (2016). Demographic peculiarities of Georgian regions. Tbilisi (In Georgian).
Tukhashvili A. (2014). Potential Educational Emigration of Georgian Students for Study Purposes. In H. Arslan, G. Raţă,E. Kocayörük, M. Ali İçbay (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Education (pp. 367-374). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Retrieved from https://www.kriso.ee/multidisciplinary-perspectives-education-db-97814438617242e.html
Tukhashvili M. (2018). Retrospective Comprehension of Post-Soviet Georgia’s Population Migration. Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Science, 12 (1), 175-181. Retrieved from http://science.org.ge/bnas/t12-n1/28_Tukhashvili.pdf
Vishnevsky A.G. (2015). Vremya demograficheskikh peremen [The Time of demographic changes]. Moscow: Izdatel’skiy dom NIU VSH·E (In Russ.).
