Jobless In Georgia: Amidst Pandemic, Labor Migration To Germany ‘Only Option’ For Thousands

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Ana Chalidze, a single mother in the southern Georgian town of Tsalka, sees temporary labor migration to Germany as her sole chance for a decent job.

Unemployment, a perennial problem in Georgia, has now become a problem that outranks even the coronavirus pandemic as a concern for most Georgians, according to a recent survey by the International Republican Institute, a U.S. non-profit organization.

Some 20 percent of the South Caucasus’ country’s workforce are jobless.

For Ana Chalidze, a single mother in the southern Georgian town of Tsalka, an employment program with Germany that started this month provides the sole “point of light.”

But, even here, no easy solution exists. Chalidze ranks 71,934th on the list of hopeful applicants.