In recent years, 1,607,000 Georgian citizens have left their homeland, Rezonansi newspaper reports. 800,000 have made their choice in favor of Russia. And about 286,000 Georgians have received Russian citizenship.
Greece is in second place (250 thousand), Ukraine is in third (150 thousand). Turkey (100 thousand), the US (80 thousand), Azerbaijan (35 thousand), and Spain (30 thousand) follow.
These Georgians actively transfer money to their homeland. $163 million was transferred from Russia in the first five months of this year, which is 37.2% of total revenue. $68.8 million and $43.2 million were transferred from Greece and Italy respectively.
The head of the Institute of Management Strategy, Petre Mamradze, told Vestnik Kavkaza that the total number of Georgian migrants, about 1.6 million people, literally shows a demographic catastrophe. "There are 3.6 million people in Georgia, so every third or fourth Georgian now lives abroad. Why? Because there is no work here, and it is impossible to earn money. The vast majority of emigrants send money to their families. There is a statistic which shows that if it were not for these monthly transfers, the Georgian lari would have collapsed a long time ago, because there are no investments," he said.
According to him, every second citizen of Georgia prefers to go to Russia because it's easier to get a job there. "These factors, of course, contribute to popular curiosity: officially we want to join NATO, the EU, but the nationwide vector shows that the population is moving to Russia," Mamradze said.
The political scientist recalled the large number of Greeks in southern Georgia. "Of course, the main work there is caring for the elderly, and most of those migrating to Greece are our women," he said.
The head of the Center for Global Studies, Nana Devdariani, in her turn, noted that mainly the most motivated and able-bodied part of the population are leaving the country. "It affects everything, starting with the birthrate and ending with the fact that now many families are incomplete. In addition, we are losing a significant electoral resource," she said.
Devdariani explained that the preference of Georgian citizens to move to Russia is due to emotional reasons. "Everyone loves this country. I'm more surprised when people leave for the countries of western Europe. It is much easier to find a job in Russia, there is no language barrier, and the way of thinking is very familiar and close," the expert said.
