Circular migration of population in the most simple way be identified as a “… process of leaving and
then returning to one‘s place of origin” (Newland, 2009, p.6). As experts note, this process is not new,
but “… it is newly on the policy agenda of governments” (Newland, 2009, p.6), as it causes
remarkable challenges for both donor’s and destination’s countries. This concerns Georgia as well.
Emigration is a new phenomenon for Georgia. It first manifested itself at the beginning of 1990s by
the large-scale emigration flows for permanent residence in other countries triggered by war and
economic crisis in Georgia. Emigration patterns later transformed into temporary migration flows of
working age population that left Georgia to have higher earnings abroad.
Hence, as a typical post-Soviet country Georgia was seriously affected by out-migration after its
independence in 1991. The last 2002 population census in Georgia registered a drop of some 20
percent compared to the population registered in the 1989 census (State Department for Statistics of
Georgia, 2003)