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The Experience of Material and Emotional Hardship in Israel: Do Some Groups Cope Better than Others?

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Abstract

While official poverty measures tend to focus on income alone, measures of material hardship also incorporate aspects of need. Families experience material hardship when they have difficulty paying bills or buying things the household needs, such as food, medicine and medical care. The current study develops four measures of material and emotional hardship and focusses on two groups that have high risks of poverty in Israel, namely Israeli–Palestinians and Ultra-orthodox Jews—Haredim, and compares them with the non-Haredi Jewish majority. Comparing Israeli–Palestinians, Haredim and non-Haredi Jews provides an opportunity to study the intersection of poverty and group membership. Group membership may affect hardship because groups differ in living conditions, poverty histories, social networks, access to resources, and perceptions of needs. The study draws on Israel’s 2013 Social Survey, conducted by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (n = 7438). The findings point to substantial degrees of inequality among the disadvantaged. Although Haredim and Palestinians have similar levels of income-poverty, the study shows that the consequences of low-income in terms of deprivation and hardship are more severe among Israeli–Palestinians than among (Haredi and non-Haredi) Jews. Israeli–Palestinians experience higher levels of material and emotional hardship than Haredim after controlling for household income.

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Notes

  1. The data do not enable us to replicate the official poverty line (measured in Israel as half the median disposable income, adjusted for household size) because income is provided in categories rather than as a continuous measure. Nonetheless, the lowest tertile of per-capita net household income in the social survey is very close to the official poverty line threshold of the same year.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 31905, Haifa, Israel

    Alisa C. Lewin

  2. Department of Labor Studies and Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Haya Stier

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  1. Alisa C. Lewin
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  2. Haya Stier
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Correspondence to Alisa C. Lewin.

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Lewin, A.C., Stier, H. The Experience of Material and Emotional Hardship in Israel: Do Some Groups Cope Better than Others?. Soc Indic Res 134, 385–402 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-016-1412-4

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