1. Social exclusion of minorities in Georgia – problem description

Ethnic minorities are among the most socially and economically vulnerable groups in Georgia, caused by the systemic practice of marginalization and neglect. No government has made positive steps to improve the social and economic state of minorities, and never institutional and legal mechanisms have been devised for eradicating the reasons for their social exclusion. Despite the fact that social and economic integration of minorities is one of the strategic priorities of the state, which is also described in the state integration strategy and action plan, exclusion remains one of the main problems, and quantitative research data attests to the same.

1.1 Social markers that show the state of social exclusion and vulnerability of ethnic minorities

1.1.1.    Comparable social and economic data

The proposed sub-chapter presents general socioeconomic characteristics of ethnic minorities living in Georgia, which was included in the qunatitative research of Instute of Social Studies and Analysis (ISSA) and is no compared to the same data for overall population of Georgia.[1] The following researches were used for the comparison with ISSA researcher results: 1. integrated household survey, prepared by the National Statistics Office of Georgia; 2. Labour force survey, also prepared by the National Statistics Office of Georgia. Both of these researches depict 2021 data.

A) Household structure analysis

At the initial stage of the socioeconomic analysis, household structure assessment is important.

As Graph 1 demonstrates, the average household size of ethnic minority representatives is substantially different from the identical number across the whole country. One member households comprise 17.4% of the overall number of households nationwide. This number is much lower in ethnic  minorities. As demonstrated by the data, only 0.4% of households are one-member households. Besides, the number of 2 and 3 member households is high nationwide, in comparison to ethnic minorities. As of 4 and more-member households, in each of this category the portion in the ethnic minority supercedes the national levels. For example, 18.4% of the households surveyd by ISSA are 4 member households, and on national level this rate is 3.1% percentage point lower (15.3%). This difference is maintained for relatively bigger households too (families with more than 4 members). The above described data underscores the fact that ethnic minority households are relatively big in size as compared to the overall population rates in Georgia.

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