Country Report: Georgia

Abstract

Although Georgia has granted dual citizenship to more than 36,000 people since 2004 and simplified naturalisation requirements, ius sanguinis remains the central principle of the established citizenship regime, and ethnicity largely determines one’s dual citizenship. The post-Soviet nationality policies of Georgia can be linked to that of Georgia’s First Democratic Republic of 1918-1921. On both occasions — after the fall of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union — Georgia had to apply collective naturalisation, encountered secessionist movements at home, and faced the difficult struggle of establishing new economic, political and social systems. The main difference between the two systems was that the earlier one was social democratic, whereas the latter was market-oriented.