INTERNAL MIGRATION AND ADAPTATION ISSUES IN POST-SOVIET ADJARA

Abstract

Difficulties of the interim post-Soviet period, rapidly changing social-economic and political processes, which followed the Soviet Union collapse, defined increase of migration processes in Georgia. Thus, the paper deals with the mental changes of society in Ajara, caused by internal regional migration (village-town). Due to historical processes, village of Mountainous Ajara was ethnocentric and homogeneous confessional space, thus population, migrated from the villages to towns, ought to adapt in polyethnic and polyconfessional conditions, causing appropriate mental changes. The paper studies such changes, their causing reasons and results as well as the strategies of adaption in new social-cultural conditions of migrated population.

Mentality of village and town is arranged from different principles. Mountainous village of Ajara presented closed, less changeable, homogeneously oriented (ethnically and confessionally) space. Social-political changes of post-Soviet period could not decrease the role of traditional village institutes. People, migrated from such conditions, falled in polyconfessional and polyethnic conditions, where people of different mentality lived, causing adaptation in different directions. The norms of traditional behavior, etiquette and cultural values  also changed. They became influenced and modernized in town and integrated the current innovative processes of new social-cultural conditions.

Batumi, in the aspect of the internal migration processes is the place of meeting and cohabitation of different religious confessions. One of the aspects of our research is to study religious interinfluence within the frames of cohabitation of confessions. In this sense, painless mental changes are mainly provided by mixed marriages, families, common civil holidays, united participation in resolving of social problems. Integration process arranges the consensus between the interests of the confessions, peacefull  cohabitation, middle course  policy and tolerance taking into account that ethnical identity (and not religion) is the uniting factor for population of Batumi.

Gradually, village population, migrated to the town, develops social strategies, necessary for adaptation in diversified society, which is one of the conditions of creation and development of multicultural society of Batumi.

Keywords: migration, ethnocentral, polyethnic and polyconfessional, adaptation, mentality