Survey on societal attitudes towards migrants, including media coverage of migration issues in Georgia and Armenia, 2020

10 Sep 2020

The objective of the study is revealing and analyzing societal attitudes towards migrants, including media coverage of migration issues in Georgia and in Armenia. Study aims to achieve several general objectives:

• Reveal the differences of opinion among various segments of population, taking into account such variables as place of residence, own experience of migration, personal contacts with migrants, socioeconomic status, age and gender
• Identify the sources of information used by the respondents and understand the role that they play in forming their attitudes – indicating the patterns of media usage and extent to which various channels are found trustworthy
• Detect the factors determining the different attitudes and establish recommendations for carrying out targeted awareness-raising campaigns.

The research was implemented by employing qualitative and quantitative methods.

Qualitative research

it is important to analyze the personal experiences of persons in direct contact with migrants. For this purpose, focus group method was used. The respondents were people, who had direct contact with migrants, such as neighbors, relatives, co-workers, friends, members of mix families.

Focus groups were conducted in three large cities of Georgia: Tbilisi, Batumi and Kutaisi. Mentioned cities are chosen based on the allocation size of migrants in the geographical area. Number of focus groups in each city was distributed as follows, depending on the specifics of the participants.

• With neighbors: 3 focus groups (total 9 focus groups)
• With friends / co-workers: 1 focus groups (total 3 focus groups)

Additionally, 1 focus group was conducted with the members of mix families in Tbilisi. Thus, in total the research covered 13 focus groups.

The data obtained as a result of the focus groups was analyzed in accordance with the guideline subheadings.

Quantitative research

Quantitative research includes surveys of the population in four large cities of Georgia: Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi, Rustavi.

The survey was implemented using the method of telephone interviews by specially structured questionnaires.

The respondents were divided into three main groups:

• Migrants (People who have been abroad for study or work purpose)
• Tourists (People who have been abroad for touristic purpose)
• Those, who have never been abroad

National statistics on migrants and tourists was taken into account to determine the number of people in each group of respondents. Totally, 1151 individuals were participate in the survey.