Lectures and seminars on migration and economy

Does migration rather benefit or burden the economy? What is the reality and can migrants’ sending and receiving states maximise the positive and minimise the negative effects of migration? These and other important questions related to the interlinkages between migration and economics will be discussed during the Winter Migration Studies Week organised by the EU-funded ENIGMMA (“Enhancing Georgia’s Migration Management”) project and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) in close cooperation with the State Commission on Migration Issues (SCMI) and the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University (ISET). The course will consist of two lectures and two seminars on “The links of emigration and immigration on the economy – a Georgian and international perspective”. In 2014, the SCMI had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tbilisi State University which provides a basis for the cooperation between the government and academia on migration issues. The MoU document was prepared within the EU-funded GOVAC project implemented by ICMPD. It provides a legal basis for cooperation between academia and state institutions in the area of migration.

The Winter Migration Studies Week is scheduled to take place at ISET from 8 to 11 December 2015. The lectures will cover topics which are relevant to Georgia’s students and young professionals working in the migration field, such as global trends in international migration; the influence of emigration and immigration on the economy of the countries of origin and destination; remittances; demographic changes; labour market; brain drain and brain gain. The aim of the lectures and seminars is to introduce interested people to the interlinkages and perspectives that arise when looking at migration and economics.

The lectures and seminars will be given by renowned migration researchers from Cambridge University, Dr. Alexi Gugushvili, and from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Dr. Biagio Speciale.
The ENIGMMA Winter Migration Studies Week is a follow-up activity to the ENIGMMA Summer School, organised by the project in June-July 2015, and the ENIGMMA Autumn Migration Studies Week. During the Summer School, the ENIGMMA project team and the Summer School lecturers determined that teaching migration research methods is very relevant for Georgian students. The target audience for these events are interested students, representatives of state institutions (members of the SCMI) and of civil society organisations.

Guidebook on legal immigration