Conclusion

Abstract

Israel is perhaps the only country in the world whose immigration policy has hardly anything to do with quotas. Israel is the state of the Jews, as asserted in its Declaration of Independence, read out by the first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, when he proclaimed the establishment of the State in May 1948. Consequently, under the Law of Return, the country’s gates are open to all Jews in the world. Israeli governments in the past and present have not only encouraged Jewish immigration, but have even taken care of the immigrants in their first years in Israel, helping them obtain (or in some cases giving them) housing, employment, education, and welfare. Whereas few—if any—other countries that take in immigrants pay attention to the geographical dispersion of the immigrants, this dispersion, which leads to geographical dispersion of jobs and infrastructure, is an important aspect of immigrant-absorption policy in Israel.