| More Georgian Men and Women Marrying Foreigners |
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25/10/2010 12:20 (577 Day 03:54 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- The number of Georgians who got married to foreign citizens has amounted to 2,035 already this year. Compared to last year’s figure which stood at 1,592, 443 more couples have officially registered their union so far this year. The leading countries where Georgians choose their future spouses from are Germany, followed by other European countries, whilst Russia stands in 4th position - according to the Civil Registry Agency.
Although the number of Georgian-foreign marriages has increased, the divorce rate among Georgian spouses is dismal leading to 800 increases in broken families each year on average (over 4 years).
In just the last two years 7,219 couples have been divorced. The recent data provided by the Civil Registry Agency shows that already 2,191 couples have officially separated this year.
As Dr. Tamara Kiknadze, expert in gender studies (Int. Black Sea University) told The FINANCIAL, there is a rise in the number of Georgians becoming the spouses of foreigners, and the main precondition for this can be considered the poor economic conditions in the country.
“Usually a determining factor is that they want to escape the adverse reality by formalizing documents then getting visas and living abroad. Such circumstances have a detrimental effect on our demographics and will therein cause serious problems for our nation in the long run. As Georgia isn’t in the list of welfare states it is obvious why such things occur. As getting visas has become tough for those willing to emigrate from Georgia, then getting formally married to a foreigner is the next best way to emigrate and live somewhere else in relative happiness and comfort,” said Kiknadze.
The Caucasus Research Resource Centre’s (CRRC) findings published on 15 October 2010 which analyses the replies of about 7,000 interviewees in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia states that 41% of Georgians approved marriage with Italians, the same percent with Greeks, and 39% with Russians.
Marriages with Abkhazians and Ossetians both fared comparably to those with Europeans; both had 36% of respondents approving. On the contrary over 80% disapproved marriage to Turks, Kurds and Chinese.
The Caucasus Barometer survey probes further into core beliefs by asking about attitudes toward interethnic marriage. In analyzing the replies of these three countries’ citizens CRRC gained an insight into how different ethnicities come into play in the context of marriage and the formation of a family. Because the family as a unit makes up the traditional concept of a society as such, typically attitudes toward interethnic marriage are more conservative even when interethnic friendship is accepted. This holds to be true in the case of the Caucasus countries according to the CB 2009 data.
22 year old Otar Sheklashvili interviewed by The FINANCIAL states that he’s no objections about Georgians marrying foreigners at all, including himself.
“I don’t see any point in rejecting a relationship on the basis of ethnicity or religion,” said Sheklashvili.
“If we get down to the individual personalities and feelings involved it doesn’t matter then as if you get along with the person well then you unconsciously are ignoring any problems with religion or ethnicity. If my second half were to be a foreigner I’d prefer to live with her in Georgia, as I work here and hope to be doing so in the coming years too. But if my living conditions were poor then I’d probably prefer to move out of the country, taking into account that I’d used all of my resources here in Georgia first,” said Sheklashvili.
“I’ve known people around me (Georgians) who got married to foreign citizens for the simple matter of getting an EU visa and this is actually frequently the case in Georgia which makes me feel a bit weird,” said Sheklashvili to The FINANCIAL.
In addition to Otar Sheklashvili, 20 Georgian women were also asked about their attitudes towards interethnic marriage. The majority of respondents were aged 19-24. As it turned out none of the respondents refused the possibility of marrying foreigners. As the major determiners of Georgian women’s attitudes were based on economic conditions, religion, mentality, physical appearance and temperament.
“I’ve nothing against marrying an Italian or other nationalities which are somewhat similar to Georgians in character,” said 21 year old Anna.
“I’d also prefer to live with him in his country, not in Georgia. Even marrying a Georgian living in another country is more attractive to me than the other way round, due to the fact that Georgian men living in a foreign country become different, getting more family-oriented and pay much more attention to their wives,” said Anna.
“As for the subject of women under 20 getting married I think that in general they are not paying much attention to what their future is going to be like, and are just taking the decision based on a naive yet positive expectation of their future. Therefore in my opinion the majority of such families are doomed to fail,” Anna stated to The FINANCIAL.
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