Georgia has one of the most liberal immigration policies worldwide. Everybody can enter Georgia with an airport visa that is valid for one year. Permanent residency status is granted as soon as one has found employment. Yet compared to other capitals, one encounters rather few foreigners when walking through Tbilisi’s streets. How can Georgia sustain its liberal policy without being overrun by immigrants?

There are two rather trivial reasons. Firstly, there is no incentive to “immigrate into the welfare state”, simply because Georgia does not have one. A good deal of immigration to Western Europe is induced through the generous welfare payments available there. The second reason is that there are so few economic opportunities for foreigners in Georgia that most potential immigrants would not see much of an advantage to move from their own poor country to another poor country. What can the Georgian economy offer to immigrants, given its failure to provide even its own population with sufficient employment and income?

While these explanations are not really flattering, they put Georgia in a pleasant situation where the country can enjoy the advantages of a liberal immigration regime without having to struggle with its negative consequences. And indeed, immigration can yield huge economic gains if facilitated in the right way.

A LOOK AT OTHER COUNTRIES

Many countries were highly successful in utilizing the positive effects of immigration. The economies of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand belong to this category, but the most prominent example is of course the United States of America. For centuries, North America is a primary destination for emigrants – persecuted European Protestants in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, Irish and Italian Catholics in the 19^th century, Jews and Armenians in the 20^th century, and Asians in the 21^st century, to name just a few significant immigration waves. When the Nazis began to terrorize the Jews of Europe, thousands of the most brilliant minds left for the USA, among them almost the entire group of scientists that built the first nuclear bomb.

But also today, the USA attracts the brightest, most energetic, and most diligent people in the world. The Ph.D. programs of the best US universities are populated with foreigners, and while the USA can boast to have received most of the Nobel Prizes awarded since the end of the Second World War, many of the laureates were in fact born in other countries. As young researchers, they found employment at US universities and decided to stay. The USA did extremely well with this policy, leading to a substantial technological edge over the rest of the world and generating the highest per capita income among all big countries.

There are other examples. While nowadays the native French population is almost entirely Catholic, that was not always the case. Some centuries ago, there were hundreds of thousands of Protestants residing in France, commonly known under the name Huguenots. The Huguenots were horribly persecuted by their Catholic compatriots, culminating in the infamous St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572, when up to 30,000 Huguenots were murdered in the streets of Paris on one single day. The violent hostility the French Protestants experienced in their home country led virtually all of them to emigrate to the USA, England, South Africa, and particularly Germany. This exodus may legitimately be considered to have been the first “brain drain” in history. The Huguenots had already been an elite group in France, and wherever they went, they brought their remarkable protestant work ethics with them. Their immigration yielded invaluable economic impulses to the absorbing countries. In Berlin, the arriving Huguenots founded two new quarters of the city, and by 1700, about 20% of the city’s inhabitants were native French speakers. Still today, families of Huguenot ancestry represent an elite group in Germany, as shown by the many French surnames among politicians, scientists, and artists.

Other successful immigration societies are Canada, Indonesia, and Australia. These countries are blessed with considerable Chinese communities that do economically extremely well. Although in 1995, just 3% of the Indonesians were ethnic Chinese, 73% of the stocks traded at the Jakarta Stock Exchange (in terms of market capitalization) were owned by Chinese Indonesians (who also owned 68% of the 300 biggest companies and 9 of the 10 major conglomerates). Unfortunately, the Chinese became scapegoats under the rule of the infamous Indonesian dictator Suharto. He nurtured malevolence and envy among the economically less potent Indonesian majority, causing ugly anti-Chinese pogroms in the late 90ies.

The Chinese are the most dynamic immigrants one can think of. It needed communism to keep these powerful people down; without Mao, already the 20^th century would have been a Chinese century, not just the 21^st. Once exposed to capitalistic competition, the inventors of gunpowder, the compass, and porcelain unleash their enormous economic potential. From an economic viewpoint, you simply can never have enough Chinese in your country. The same is true for other Asian peoples, like the Vietnamese, the only nation in history that militarily defeated the USA.

AND GEORGIA?

History teaches a clear lesson. If a country wants to utilize immigration, it is important to attract the right groups. In the past, Georgia did pretty well in this respect. The Armenian Diaspora in Tbilisi was successful in trade and science and cradled the 9^th World Chess Champion Tigran Petrosian. The Jewish community, allegedly dating back to 538 BC, played a significant role in Georgian economy and culture, but has unfortunately largely left the country.

Through the liberalization of immigration laws carried out by the previous government, Georgia again became interesting for immigrants and temporary foreign residents. Among the students admitted to ISET in 2011 and 2012, there were not only Azeris and Armenians, but also Israelis, Iranians, Ukrainians, and Latvians. In addition, ISET received applications from the whole world, ranging from China to Africa and Eastern Europe. Also, many Indians are appreciating the good medical education they can receive in Tbilisi for reasonable prices. And Georgia is one of the few countries in the world Iranians can enter without visa problems, and a lot of Iranian business is now going on in Tbilisi.

The liberal immigration policy is one of the few competitive strengths Georgia. Easy entry, low levels of corruption, minimal bureaucracy, transparent and efficient services convince foreigners to offer their human or financial capital to the Georgian economy or to start their own businesses. Georgia may also try to fight for economically strong groups that are not welcome anymore in their home countries and look for a refuge.

In a smart act, the former government invited the Boers from South Africa to settle in Georgia. The Boers are renowned for their outstanding agricultural expertise and, given that they do not feel comfortable in post-apartheid South Africa, their arrival could have been a boost for the pathetic Georgian agricultural sector. The graph shows that the number of South African visitors quadrupled since 2010, which may be related to the Boers. Yet unfortunately, though some Boers did settle in Georgia, the large-scale immigration that was hoped for did not take place.

Other people currently driven out of their home country are the Coptic Christians from Egypt. Since the “Arab Spring” allowed Islamists to take over in Egypt, the Coptic Christian minority suffers from intolerance and persecution. The word about Georgia’s liberal immigration policy seems to have spread to Egypt, as the number of Egyptians entering Georgia in February 2013 is 10 times higher than it was in February 2012. With money brought from Egypt, many of these refugees try to establish new businesses in Georgia. As an owner of a Tbilisi printing house told us: “Now I have many Egyptian customers. All of them are Christians. They order billboards for their restaurants, cafes, hotels, and shops.”

Another group of foreigners that could be beneficial to Georgia, in particular for its agriculture, are Punjabi farmers from India. According to some sources, Punjabis purchased considerable amounts of arable land in Georgia, which has a superior soil quality and allegedly is much cheaper than in India. As can be seen on the chart, the number of Indian visitors to Georgia is very high in absolute terms and the trend is still positive.

The absence of corruption and bureaucratic obstacles are important factors for the decision of foreigners to get engaged in the Georgian economy. Georgia’s overall economic situation is depressing, but immigration is one of the few positive signs on the horizon.