Final Conference of the Circular Migration Project

On April 26, 2016 the Final Conference & Media Event of the project „Strengthening the Development Potential of the EU Mobility Partnership in Georgia through Targeted Circular Migration and Diaspora Mobilization“ was held in Tbilisi, in the hotel „Radisson Blu Iveria“. The implementing partners of the project and project beneficiaries presented its main results, achievements, lessons learnt and future cooperation plans.

The goal of this EU-funded project was to strengthen Georgia’s capacities to harness the development potential of its Mobility Partnership (MP) to benefit migrants, country of origin and country of destination, thereby identifying guidelines and good practices for replication for other EU MPs.

The highlights of the project are: testing a pilot circular migration scheme between Germany and Georgia, migration policy advice to Georgian policymakers, diaspora mobilization and start-up support, identifying best practices and guidelines for replication. Through intensive activities, the project achieved to place 28 professionals (hospitality, nursing) from Georgia in temporary employment in Germany, 55 members of Georgian diaspora in Germany returned to Georgia in employment, 5 businesses were founded, a manual for replication of action was compiled to ensure sustainability. Last but not least, capacities of Georgian policymakers involved in migration field were enhanced through long & short term consultancies, as well as numerous conferences, workshops, study visit to Germany, diaspora conference & job fair in Germany etc.

The final conference was followed by a media event, which aimed at informing the media about the project outcomes and share information about future cooperation between Georgia and Germany about labor migration management.

The project was implemented from May 2013 until May 2016 by the partners: German International Cooperation GIZ/Center for International Migration and Development CIM, Public Service Development Agency and Georgian Small and Medium Enterprises Association (GSMEA) through the funding of the EU and Federal Ministry of Germany for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).