Student potential migration from Georgia

Tamar Shinjiashvili, Institute of Demography and Sociology

Georgia has never been characterized as a country with intensive external migration processes; whilst there was no particular need for people to go abroad to improve their living conditions. However, social-economic crisis of the beginning of 1990s has caused unprecedented scales of emigration. In the period between two population censuses, 1989 and 2002, due to emigration Georgia has lost more than one million of citizens that consists a fifth of its population. In order to show the future tendencies in migration processes we have held demo-sociological research. We have interviewed 500 students of the universities in Tbilisi to show the trends of the youth possible depart; to investigate migration disposition of the youth; causes, scales and main trends of the potential external migration of the youth, the possibility and desire of returning of the potential young migrants at home. The research of potential students’ emigration revealed that the emigration potential is quite high. The considerable proportion of students is ready psychologically for going abroad and they will depart if they have any possibility and chances. Migratory disposition is higher among the single population. But it should be indicated that many of them don’t intend leaving the country. The main reasons of potential migration are: social-economic hardship, educational purposes and so on. We think that the results of the research will show us if the demographic situation improves or worsens more in the future. The end of the paper will stress the main trends of resolving the problems of migration with the help of government and outlines useful recommendations. So, the paper will present the analysis of the youth potential emigration processes, whereas focusing on its positive and negative consequences.