National Report on Georgian Youth
people stay in the village. (Governmental sector) • There are more education and job opportunities in the cities The migration from villages to cities is big. In the villages young people cannot develop. They cannot get a proper education, job, or information. Consequently, they migrate to the cities. (NGO sector) • L ow level of awareness of available opportunities in the country (lack of computers/internet) Along with employment, another main problem for young people is that they are not informed about the developments in the country. They do not know what challenges they may face, where they can study. Internet and computers are available for only some of them. (NGO sector) They live in a different information environment, social situation and level of development… (NGO sector) • Young people in regions have plenty of unorganized free time Another motive for youth migration is the problem of free time. Young people are especially troubled by the fact that their free time is unorganized. This factor is very important and in Tbilisi the entertainment opportunities are more than in the regions. Hence, they attract the youth. (NGO sector)
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National Report on Georgian Youth
SOCIALLY VULNERABLE GROUPS When society in general faces acute problems, those who are socially vulnerable are particularly affected. It is therefore useful to see which groups are perceived as socially vulnerable by young people and on what basis they identify these groups. 21% of young respondents think that a socially vulnerable group consists of disabled people, 19% think that they are orphaned children, 5% include people with mental disorders in the category and 3% think that these are people living below the poverty line. We should add that the majority of respondents (60%) are unable to find any definition of ‘socially vulnerable’. To the question “Is there a socially vulnerable young person in your family?” of the 3% of respondents who said that this was the case in their family, one-third referred to mental disorders and two thirds to physical disability. Respondents were asked also to assess the degree of social integration of mentally and physically disabled people. Grading on a 5-point scale, 9% of respondents think that this group are not socially integrated at all, while 7% say that they are fully integrated. The majority of respondents (72%) give an average assessment and 12% find it hard to answer at all. Questions in this section also addressed the rights of physically and mentally disabled people. The responses suggest that their rights to medical assistance (for 50% of physically and 46% of mentally disabled people) and a place to live (for 45% of physically and 37% of mentally disabled people) are on the whole respected. The least protected is their right to employment and holidays. 25% of respondents say that this right is protected for physically disabled people and only 15% for mentally disabled people. The data concerning young peoples’ attitudes towards socially vulnerable groups are interesting (see chart). 61