Living in Georgia

Georgia carries a particular tension, with the cost of an ordinary life running high while pay stays modest, and that gap leaves almost nothing spare at the end of the month. Tourism and hospitality are the fields most open to new arrivals, which shapes who tends to land work and on what terms. Tax stays out of the way, but with so little margin to begin with, that counts for less than it otherwise might. The country is easy to be drawn to and harder to get ahead in, and the budget is where you feel the difference.

Georgia's diaspora is unusual in that it is shrinking — about 496.5K Georgians live abroad, down 22% over the past decade as many have returned home. The largest communities remain in Russia (139.3K), Greece, and Ukraine. Immigration into Georgia is comparatively limited, at 78.4K foreign-born residents, the largest group of them from Russia.