Ethnic Minorities and the Issue of Their Integration in Modern Georgian Society (on the Example of Ethnic Kists)

The Master's thesis „Ethnic Minorities and the Issue of Their Integration in Georgian Society (on the Example of Ethnic Kists)“ is dedicated to the study of the problems of ethnic minorities living in the Pankisi Gorge, the issue of their integration into modern Georgian society and related problems. The work focuses on the factors that influence the integration process.
The problem of integration is expressed in the existence of frequent conflicts between Kist and Georgian youth, as well as the stereotypical attitude of the society towards the Kist community. The problem is made actual that the number of Kists, leaving the Pankisi Gorge and going to war in Syria, is increasing every year. The outflow of Kists from the gorge, along with other important issues, is also reflected acutely on the integration process.
The aim of the work is to study the peculiarities of the process of integration of Kists living in the Pankisi Gorge into the Georgian society. Studies on this issue show that the state is indifferent towards the Kists.
The state does not care about raising awareness of the Kists, moreover, there is no action plan that will facilitate the integration process. Another important problem is poverty, which can be named as one of the contributing factors for migration. Particularly noteworthy is the influx of Islam from Arab countries, which hinders significantly the integration process.
In the work, we used studies conducted by various organizations, which clearly show the problems and challenges of ethnic minorities in integration issues. In addition, the work focuses on the changes that have taken place in terms of ethnic minorities in recent years.