Georgian Americans

Georgia Background

The people known as Georgians call themselves kartvelebi and call their country Sakartvelo. The word Georgia probably mutated from the Turkish term for Georgian, Gurji, although there are other theories pointing to a Greek or Farsi origin of the word. Georgians speak a language that is part of the southwest (non-Indo-European) Caucasian group of languages. Most Georgians belong to the Georgian Orthodox Church, although there are also a small number of Catholics and Baptists and significant numbers of Georgian Muslims in Achara. Georgia occupies 27,657 square miles (approximately twice the size of Belgium). On its northern border lies the Russian Federation, to the south are Turkey and the Republic of Armenia, and to the west and east are the Black Sea and the Republic of Azerbaijan, respectively.

Most Georgian emigrants during the 20th century settled in Russia (the majority), Poland, France, or Germany. Munich and Paris were traditional havens for Georgian political émigrés. Before the 1930s, the vast majority of Georgian political émigrés belonged to the Georgian social democratic movement, which had strong links with European socialist parties in Germany, Belgium, and France. After the invasion of Georgia by the Red Army in February 1921, General Josef Pilsudski, a former socialist and Polish dictator [Page 538]from 1926 to 1935, invited many Georgian emigrants to settle in Poland and train as officers in Polish military academies.

Of all Soviet peoples, the Georgians were the most likely to remain within the boundaries of their republic, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Georgia experienced a catastrophic economic decline and secessionist wars that led to intensified emigration. Between 1989 and January 2002, the Georgian population declined from 5,456,100 to 4,452,100—a decrease of 16%. The decline was a result of falling birth rates, increased mortality levels, the loss of population in Abkhazia and South Osetia, the out-migration of non-Georgians, and (most significant) the emigration of Georgians in search of work. The official unemployment rate was 13.8% in 2005, and unofficially it was between 30% and 40%. Approximately 40% of Georgia's emigrants during the 1990s ended up in Russia, and 14% ended up in the United States. More of Georgia's national minorities (50.5% vs. 31.0% of Georgians) left for Russia, and more Georgians (19.5% vs. 9.0% of national minorities) left for the United States.

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