Georgian and Language Competition in the Diaspora (Emigrant community)

Abstract

At the End of the XXth and at the beginning of the XXIst Century the population of Georgia has decreased by  9,1% . This decrease has been influenced by demographic processes as well as by those connected with long-term emigration. In terms of numbers, the largest emigration occurred bertween 2003  and 2010 when approximately 1,5 mln people left Georgia. Emigration has decreased in recent years; however, every year several tens of thousands of Georgian nationals leave Georgia. For an extended period of time  Georgia lacked any systematic studies grounded in statistics regarding the lives of those Georgian nationals who had emigrated; however, in recent years, the  number of researchers studying the Georgian Diaspora continues to extand. One of the most extensive studies devoted to researching the life of the diaspora is the study the Georgia’s emigrant communities: national identity, translational relationships and the politics of the diaspora, which has conducted in 2014-2016 by a research group from the Ministry of Foreign affairs of Georgia. The Georgian languuage situation in the diaspora is analyzed based on the statistics from this study.