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Life Quality of Russian Immigrants to Israel: Patterns of Success and of Unsuccess

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Abstract

Two different perspectives on immigration outcomes are employed and interrelated: Overall assessments of the success in immigration and systemic quality of life assessments (using SQOL model, Shye in Soc Indic Res, 21:243–378, 1989). Data were collected from a sample of 337 immigrants to Israel from the former USSR. Results reveal that quality of life is a good indicator of perceived success in immigration and that, of the 16 SQOL components, the expressive and the conservative modes of the personality and of the social subsystems are the four most important SQOL components that determine successful immigration. The findings underscore the value of using a comprehensive theory-based conception of quality of life in immigration research.

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Notes

  1. A modern development of multidimensional scaling that integrated space-partitioning into the analysis.

  2. In general, populations we usually expect stability in structure. But in specific populations--esp. if their defining characteristic overlaps conceptually the content universe studied (as here: success in immigration and SQOL both concern success in achieving good life), structural differences may be hypothesized and are often found. (See e.g., Elizur and Shye 1976, where Israeli emigrants to the US and to France exhibit two different structural patterns with respect to their satisfaction with life conditions in different geographic and temporal situation.).

  3. The systemic quality of life theory (SQOL) specifies the essential contents of each content profile (or content sub-domain; i.e. a selection of one of the four subsystems together with a selection of one of the four modes). In any particular application the researcher creates suitable variables that systematically sample the 16 SQOL content profiles.

  4. It is important to note that although the physical and the social switch places—the structure remains the same: the personality and the cultural subsystem are opposite each other and are mediated by the physical and social subsystems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel

    Maya Benish-Weisman & Samuel Shye

  2. The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Jerusalem, Israel

    Samuel Shye

Authors
  1. Maya Benish-Weisman
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  2. Samuel Shye
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Correspondence to Maya Benish-Weisman.

Appendix

Appendix

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Table 3 Correlations matrix of the 16 SQOL variables
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Benish-Weisman, M., Shye, S. Life Quality of Russian Immigrants to Israel: Patterns of Success and of Unsuccess. Soc Indic Res 101, 461–479 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9664-x

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