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Ethnicity and Labor Market Incorporation of Post-1990 Immigrants in Israel

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Abstract

Using data from “The Immigrants Survey” we compare economic incorporation of four ethnic groups of immigrants who arrived to Israel between 1990 and 2007: Ethiopia, Western Europe and the Americas, Asia and North Africa, and the Former Soviet Union. Labor market incorporation is evaluated in terms of labor force participation, occupational attainment and earnings. The analysis reveals that regardless of ethnicity, when compared to native-born, immigrant women face greater disadvantages in the labor market than immigrant men. Further analysis reveals that immigrants from the Former Soviet Union are more likely to become economically active than the other groups; immigrants from Europe and the Americas have better access to high status occupations than do either immigrant Former Soviet Union or Asia and Africa and Ethiopia. Ethiopian immigrants are the most disadvantaged group in attainment of high status lucrative occupations and earnings. The findings point toward an ethnic hierarchy among post-1990 immigrants in Israel with European-Americans at the top, followed by Soviet immigrants, followed by immigrants from Asia–Africa and ending with Ethiopian immigrants at the bottom. The meaning of these findings for possibility of emergence of a more diversified and elaborated system of ethnic stratification is discussed in light of Israel’s immigration policy.

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Notes

  1. Although immigrants to Israel are somewhat different from purely economic immigrants in other immigrant-receiving societies, their incorporation in the host labor market resembles processes observed in other societies (Shuval and Leshem 1998).

  2. In addition to immigrants arriving under the auspices of the law of return, Israel has become an important destination for non-Jewish labor migrants. Most labor migrants arrive from South East Asia (Thailand, Philippines, Nepal, Sri-Lanka, and China) to work in agriculture, construction and long-term care (Raijman and Kemp 2010). Other global migrants come from African and Latin American countries. Unfortunately, because no comparable information is available for labor migrants in Israel, they will not be included in the present study.

  3. We included South Africa and Australia in the EUAM category for two main reasons. First, Jews arriving in Israel from these two English speaking countries are of East European origin. Second, the small sample size of each one of the EUAM countries does not allow for separate analysis by specific origin.

  4. It should be noted the current Jewish migration from Middle Eastern countries and North Africa differs in terms of the socio-economic characteristics of the newcomers from the previous flows of migration arriving in Israel after statehood. Immigrants from Middle Eastern countries are arrived mainly from Iran, India, and Turkey. Immigrants from North Africa arrived mainly from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

  5. The Immigrant Survey provides information for immigrants aged 27 and older. For this reason we restricted our analysis to this range of age.

  6. The data on occupations were provided only for major occupational categories. Unfortunately, we could not use index for occupational socio-economic status.

  7. Because data for EUAM and MENA countries were provided only in major categories we could not distinguish specific countries of origin. Nevertheless, we believe that these two major categories are rather homogeneous and capture two distinct ethnic groups. In addition, due to the size of the sample we had to focus on major categories of origin.

  8. Because age and years since migration are grouped variables in New Immigrants Survey, we computed middle points for each interval.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University, P.O.B. 39040, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Moshe Semyonov

  2. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Haifa, 199 Aba-Hushi Avenue Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel

    Rebeca Raijman

  3. Department of Labor Studies, Tel Aviv University, P.O.B. 39040, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Dina Maskileyson

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  1. Moshe Semyonov
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  2. Rebeca Raijman
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  3. Dina Maskileyson
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Correspondence to Moshe Semyonov.

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Semyonov, M., Raijman, R. & Maskileyson, D. Ethnicity and Labor Market Incorporation of Post-1990 Immigrants in Israel. Popul Res Policy Rev 34, 331–359 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-014-9345-6

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