The occurrence of these problems is preconditioned by the quality of
education of ethnic minorities and access to creations of the intellect, including
awareness of their rights and mechanisms for their protection.
The minority policy and especially the linguistic policy, existing until
recently, led to the fact that minorities living in Georgia are not sufficiently proficient
in the state language, which leads to indirect discrimination against them in the field
of education, particularly higher education and as a consequence, discrimination in
employment and economic self-realisation resulting in unemployment, poverty and
increasing level of illegal migration from the regions densely populated by ethnic
minorities. Georgia is currently implementing a number of preferential conditions for
the members of ethnic minorities with regard to enrolment in higher education, but
the existing efforts are insufficient and do not prevent the indirect discrimination in
the education system and the outflow of young people belonging to ethnic
minorities from the country. Lack of proficiency in the state language is also one of
the main reasons of underrepresentation of minorities in governmental bodies and at
the positions in the public sphere.
To solve these problems, we recommend to:
1. involve representatives of ethnic minorities in the implementation and
monitoring of the recently adopted National Action Plan for civic integration and the
development of tolerance, particularly in the area of economic advancement of
minorities, as well as enhancing the role of local governments in this process;
2. Establish a responsible person/entity in the Ministry of Economic
Development, who would work on increasing the numbers of participating
minorities in the decision-making process in the socio-economic sphere;
3. ensure a segregated system of producing statistics is in place, covering
areas of employment, running a small business, education etc., distinguishing ethnic
minorities;
4. Continue using affirmative action in relation to enrolment of members of
ethnic minorities in higher education;