Borderization in Georgia: A mobility perspective

‘Borderization’ refers to the process of installing fences and other infrastructures of control and surveillance by the Russian security services along the de facto boundary between Georgia and South Ossetia. Georgian political discourse generally focuses on a territorial dimension of borderization and views it primarily as a physical demarcation of an already existing geopolitical condition, understood as the Russian occupation of Georgia’s sovereign territory. Borderization has dramatically curtailed mobility between the two sides of the de facto border. Georgian political discourse describes this aspect of borderization as Russia’s purposeful strategy to estrange Ossetians from Georgians. However, the narrow ethnic frame sidelines various other forms of immobility experienced by local residents. An expanded concept of mobility can offer a more nuanced understanding of borderization and illustrate overlooked geopolitical and geographical complexities. Through interviews with residents of Nikozi, Ergneti, and Ditsi, the article identifies four distinct forms of immobility resulting from borderization that shape how people and goods move inside the villages, across the de facto boundary, between the border strip and Tbilisi, and between the strip and Russia. The mobility perspective offers a complementary lens to understand the effects of the existing geopolitical condition on the local community’s security and welfare.