Georgian marriage trends: loving foreign citizens

A Georgian taxi driver told me that it is traditional for Georgians to marry Georgians, and added that west Georgians marry west Georgians and east Georgians marry east Georgians, and rarely did the two meet.

The Caucasus Research Resource Centre (CRRC) surveyed almost 7,000 individuals in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia on attitudes to love and marriage and published the results in October this year. When questioned about marriage to foreign citizens, 41% said they would consider marrying Italians, 41% said they would consider marrying Greeks and 39% would consider marrying Russians. Over 80% of Azerbaijanis, Georgians and Armenians said they were less likely to marryTurks, Kurds, and Chinese.

CRRC also analyzed the reasons for their approval or disapproval of inter-ethnic marriages. The citizens of the three Caucasus countries surveyed based their reasons for marriage on (1) economic conditions; (2) religion; (3) mentality; (4) physical appearance; and (5) temperament. The preference for a foreign citizen spouse was someone “of similar character to themselves” particularly with regard to religion and economic conditions.

Of the Georgians surveyed, male Georgians preferred to stay in Georgia with their foreign spouse, except if their living conditions were poor, then they said they would probably move to their spouse’s country of origin (no percentages were provided in the newspaper article). Female Georgians preferred to live in their spouse’s country and not in Georgia (again, no percentages of respondents were provided).

Which foreign citizens did Georgians actually marry in 2010?

The Financial newspaper in Georgia on October 25 reported that the number of Georgians who married foreign citizens rose from 1,592 in 2009 to 2,035 this year (443 more couples), according to the Civil Registry Agency in Tbilisi. The foreign citizens were predominantly from Germany. “Other European countries” made up the second and third position (the countries were not specified in the newspaper article), and Russians were in fourth position.

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