Georgians who live in Russia
By M. Alkhazashvili

The Messenger, Georgia
Oct 12 2004

Russian politicians frequently mention that there are nearly one
million Georgian emigrants in Russia who work there and send nearly
USD 1.5 billion back to their homeland.

For example, speaking at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe debate on Georgian-Russian relations last Thursday, Russian
delegate Natalia Narochnitskaya said that “twenty per cent of Georgia’s
population lived in Moscow.”

But how real are statements about one million Georgian emigrants
in Russia?

A census held in Georgia revealed that between 1989-2002, 977,000
people emigrated abroad, approximately one fifth of the total
population. The newspaper Rezonansi reports, however, that this number
includes only 280 thousand Georgians, while the other 697,000 were
from minority groups (including 163,000 Armenians and 62,000 Azeris).

This suggests that the majority of emigrants are not in fact of
Georgian ethnicity, and do not support family members living in
Georgia. Indeed, more generally, statistics suggest that only 41
percent of Georgian emigrants help their relatives, while 7 percent
actually receive support from relatives in Georgia.

Furthermore, the 2002 census held in Russia revealed that there are
only 198 000 Georgians living there, while the 1989 census found that
there were only 131,000 Georgians in Russia. This means that only
67,000 ethnic Georgians left for Russia from Georgia between 1989-2002.

It is noteworthy that in 1989 – 2002 the number of Armenians in Russia
increased by 598,000 and that there are currently 1,130,000 Armenians
living in Russia, while the number of Azeris increased by 265,000 to
a 2002 total of 621,000.

Despite such numbers, Russian MPs continue to highlight what they
describe as the very high number of Georgians living in Russia.