International migration: recent policy directions in Georgia

A specific feature of the Georgian labour migration is that it is largely illegal. Numerous attempts to develop a labour migration law in Georgia have failed for various reasons. Cooperation with different countries aimed at regulating labour migration has also been unsuccessful; for the moment Georgia has not signed bilateral labour migration agreements with foreign countries regulating the labour migration flows of Georgian citizens abroad. In 2009, Georgia together with the European Commission and 16 EU Member States moved to the implementation phase of the Mobility Partnership (MP), which is an important event encouraging circular migration. However, currently there are still no effective mechanisms in Georgia to support legal labour migration in any way. In order to facilitate a circular migration Georgian government should take a leadership in its arrangements and create the special services for its implementation in order to help to organise pre-migration assistance. In October, 2012 as a result of Parliament election the government of Georgia has been changed and cardinal changes in all fields of social policy are expecting. Let us hope that new government will be more effective in facilitation of circular migration in Georgia.