This report presents the patterns of integration into employment of immigrants aged 22–64 who have arrived in Israel since 1990. It examines immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU), Ethiopian Israelis, and three groups of immigrants from Western countries—today a major target of Israel’s policy to promote immigration: immigrants from English-speaking countries, those from central and Western Europe, and those from Central and South America. A separate chapter is devoted to each group and the report also contains a comparison among the groups by key indicators. In addition, the report includes a chapter on young adult immigrants aged 22–30, which examines patterns peculiar to them, not only regarding integration into employment but also into studies and military service.
The analysis in this report is based on periodical surveys conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics: the 2002 and 2003 Labor Force Surveys and the 2003 Social Survey. The Labor Force Surveys contain extensive detailed information about the characteristics of the population and various indicators regarding integration into work. The Social Survey includes additional data on the immigrants’ levels of satisfaction at work, which complement the objective data in the Labor Force Surveys.
The report is unique in its comparative presentation of all the main immigrant groups and its extensive consideration of many dimensions of integration at work, both objective and subjective: rate of participation in the labor force, employment rate, extent of employment (full- or part-time work), the rate and depth of unemployment, current occupation and the immigrants’ satisfaction with their work, their income, and life in Israel. The report presents the characteristics of working-age (22–64) immigrants and examines the connection between background characteristics and the employment indices. It contains a comparison between the immigrants and the general Jewish population, in order to examine the extent to which, with time, the patterns of immigrant participation in the labor force and employment become similar to those of Israel’s general Jewish population.
The findings of the report illustrate the differences between the integration patterns of the different groups of immigrants and highlight the importance of adapting employment policy to the needs of each group.
Parts of the report have already been presented in various government forums and conferences on immigrant employment and they constitute the basis for deliberating and planning action to promote the integration of immigrants into employment.
Citations in the professional and academic literature
Jasinskaja-Lahti, I., Horenczyk, G., & Kinunen, T. (2011). Time and context in the relationship between acculturation attitudes and adaptation among Russian-speaking immigrants in Finland and Israel. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37(9), 1423-1440.
Heilbrunn, S., Kushnirovich, N., & Zeltzer-Zubida, A. (2010). Barriers to immigrants’ integration into the labor market: Modes and coping. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 34(3), 244-252.
Gal, J. (2008). Immigration and the categorical welfare state in Israel. Social Service Review, 82(4), 639-661.
Goldblatt, H., & Rosenblum, S. (2007). Navigating among worlds: The experience of Ethiopian adolescents in Israel. Journal of Adolescent Research, 22(6), 585-611.
Litwin, H., & Leshem, E. (2008). Late-life migration, work status, and survival: The case of older immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel. International Migration Review, 42(4), 903-925.
Gal, J., & Oser, J. (2012). A categorical immigration policy: Welfare, integration and the production of inequality (pp. 227-243). Cambridge: Policy Press.
Konstantinov, V. (2015). The Professional Mobility of FSU Immigrants in Israel, 1990–2010. Research in Jewish Demography and Identity, 169-196.
Gal, J. Immigration and the Welfare State: Israel in Comparative Context.