Emigrants are often considered a loss for their country of origin but they can also play an important role in fostering trade and economic development, notably through the skills and contacts they have acquired abroad. If they choose to return, their re‑integration into the labour market and society will be facilitated by the fact that they speak the local language, have specific social capital and possess local qualifications that are readily recognised by employers.

The crises prompted by the complex economic and political transitions faced by Georgia in the 1990s after the collapse of the USSR provoked large emigration flows of Georgian nationals, to the Russian Federation and to neighbouring countries mainly. In the 2000s, the increasing difficulty to migrate to the Russian Federation and the rising tensions between Georgia and the Russian Federation led to a diversification in destination countries. Annual legal migration flows from Georgia to OECD countries increased from about 1 400 persons in 2000 to 12 300 in 2010 and to more than 30 000 in 2019. Turkey and Germany now attract the largest flows of Georgian nationals in the OECD area (8 000 and 7 000 respectively in 2019). The other main OECD destination countries for Georgian nationals include Poland (4 200), Greece (3 000), and the United States (1 500).

This chapter examines recent trends in emigration from Georgia to the main OECD and non-OECD destination countries. As in many post-Soviet countries, the scale and nature of emigration from Georgia have been shaped by the complex economic and political transitions faced by Georgia in the 1990s resulting from the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Therefore, in order to better understand the recent evolution in emigration flows, this chapter first traces the historical context of emigration from Georgia since its independence. The chapter then examines recent emigration flows from Georgia to the main OECD destination countries and analyses the nature of these flows, using data on categories of residence permits issued to Georgian nationals. Finally, the last section examines emigration intentions among the Georgian population and the main determining factors of the desire to emigrate.

This chapter examines the size of the Georgian diaspora in the main destination countries, as well as its overall evolution since 2000. It provides a socio‑demographic analysis of the emigrant population, focusing on age and educational distribution, emphasising differences by sex and across destination countries. For the main destination countries, it provides a snapshot of the geographic distribution of emigrants, as well as information on the acquisition of nationality. The chapter also presents evidence on overall emigration rates of the Georgian population and its highly educated population towards OECD countries. The overall analysis systematically compares the Georgian diaspora with two reference groups: the foreign‑born population living in the OECD area and the emigrant populations from seven selected Caucasian and Central Asian countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

This chapter analyses Georgian emigrants’ insertion into the labour market focusing on the main OECD destination countries. It provides employment rates among emigrants between 15 and 64 years old in 2015/2016 and more recent data for the United States and Italy. The chapter also examines the dynamics of Georgian emigrants’ insertion since the 2008 recession and the Eurozone debt crisis and analyses the main factors of emigrants’ employment through the lens of gender, educational attainment, duration of stay, and citizenship. Finally, it presents data on the adequacy of their occupations vis‑à-vis their qualifications and, lastly, the branch of activity they work in. The overall analysis systematically compares the Georgian diaspora with two reference groups, the foreign-born population living in the OECD area and the emigrant populations from seven selected Caucasian and Central Asian countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The Database on Immigrants in OECD Countries (DIOC) covers the OECD destination countries for which data were collected both in 2000/01, 2005/06, 2010/11 and 2015/16. The main sources of DIOC data are national administrative registers and population censuses. In the censuses carried out in 2000/01, almost all OECD countries collected information on the country of origin of emigrants, so that it became possible to have an comprehensive overview of the numbers of migrants in OECD countries (for more general information on DIOC, see d’Aiglepierre et al. (2020[1]). Where censuses were not available or incomplete, labour force surveys were used as a substitute.