COVID-19 Faces of Migration – Story of Elguja (age 49), returnee from Greece

Elguja lives in village Tetritsklebi (Kakheti region) with his daughter and his 84-year old mother Maro. He worked in the construction field in Georgia for many years. But the income was not sufficient to provide for his family. Two years ago, Elguja made a difficult decision to leave his family, who depended greatly on him, and go abroad for work. He thought long about where to go and finally, decided on Greece, where he thought it would be easier, as Greece and Georgia share similar cultures and traditions. 

Elguja spent 2 difficult years and 6 months in Athens. Though life in Greece did indeed seem familiar, it was hard to find a job there without speaking the local language. After more than a year of searching and trying to arrange necessary documents, Elguja managed to find employment in a meat factory and he even obtained a work permit. But Elguja could not stay in Greece for much longer and returned to Georgia in March 2020 with IOM’s support. His mother needed taking care of and his daughter was about to graduate from high school. With the reintegration assistance grant the family managed to set up a dairy farm. Elguja looks after the cows and Maro produces cheese, which the family sells locally.

Elguja plans to go back to work in the construction field in his native Georgia, but he will also expand his dairy farm. While COVID-19 has not impacted their business much, the family is struggling a bit, as the village where they live is 20 km from Telavi and due to movement restrictions, they could not move around freely for their everyday needs.

Now the family has a stable income and Elguja is not planning to travel abroad for work anymore.

With the increase in unemployment worldwide in sectors where migrants often work and a decrease in earnings due to the global recession, migrant parents may find themselves in precarious economic situations, unable to provide for the basic needs of their family. This may also be the case for parents who have migrated to work abroad leaving their children in the country of origin and who may not be able to support their family by sending remittances or may have to return to their country of origin because of unemployment. 

In various parts of the world IOM is assisting thousands of migrants who have been affected by movement restrictions and are unable to work or return home.
 

Photos by Eric Gourlan