Sosiological perspective of romani (Gypsy) in Georgia: History, culture, identity

The thesis includes general information about Romani people in the whole world as well as about Romani people in Georgia. The thesis aims at studying Romani ethnic group not as a separate group in itself, but as one of the constituting parts of the Georgian society. Thus, it focuses not exclusively only on the perspective and inner structure of the Romani people but also on their reception by the majority of society. Although Romani people living in Georgia name themselves "Tsigane", I prefer to use the word "Romani" or "Bosha" in my thesis. It should be highlighted that it is almost impossible to estimate the exact number of Dom, Lom, and Roma populations in the world. The maximum number of Roma is estimated to be around 3,000 in Georgia; the number of Lom can be determined as 2,000 to 3,000 people (Marushiakova and Popov, 2016: 12). The number of researches on Romani in Caucasus is insufficient, especially in a country like Georgia. This study consists of two researches, which were conducted for a deeper understanding of Romani people as part of the dominant society. Both field researches were carried out in Georgia: the indept interviews were conducted in September of 2017 in Vaziani settlement with 13 Romani people (6 women and 7 men). Secondly, a survey was conducted with 200 Georgian people in Tbilisi. Both researches were analysed together, thinking that it will be useful not only for identifying problems, but also for making proposals to effectively solve the problems in Georgian society. The aim of indept interviews was studying and analayzing Romani people's socio-economic situation, their culture, customs, and their own views about their life in the society. The aim of the survey was studying and analyzing Georgians' view, as the view of the dominant society, about Romani people. Based on the findings of the field research, the main problem in the society is inadequate communication between Romani people and members of the major society. Findings of the field research highlight that in Georgia these are the two sides of the same society yet there is a huge gap between them, where Romani people stay out of major society's life and Georgians don't perceive Romani as members of their society. Because of that the main purpose of the research was not only studying about the ethnic minority's socio-economic situation or about the stereotypes in the dominant society, but to add the knowledge to bridge the fragmented society through revealing the reasons for the gap between two parts of it.