Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Social Indicators Research
Published in: Social Indicators Research 3/2018

06-10-2017 | Original Research

Identity, Belonging and Intentions to Leave of First and 1.5 Generation FSU Immigrants in Israel

Author: Karin Amit

Published in: Social Indicators Research | Issue 3/2018

Log in

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config
loading …

Abstract

Recent studies examining immigrant intentions to leave the host country have focused on return migration to the origin country (De Haas and Fokkema in Demogr Res 25:755–782, 2011; De Haas et al. in J Int Migr Integr 16(2):415–429, 2015). The current study examines immigrant intentions to leave the host country, but not necessarily to return to the homeland. The predictive model, which focuses on immigrant subjective identity, was tested through a survey of 338 first and 1.5 generation Former Soviet Union (FSU) immigrants in Israel, who applied to a prominent NGO to obtain proof of their Jewishness. These individuals are from the largest recent immigrant group in Israel, and are highly represented among the young adult (aged 25–40) immigrants leaving Israel. The findings indicate that contrary to our expectations, Israeli local identity did not have a significant effect on the immigrants’ intentions to leave Israel. By contrast, Jewish identity and level of religiosity did play a significant role in attenuating the immigrant’s tendency to leave. This paper highlights the complex relationship between ethnic identities and religiosity among immigrants in general, and in Israel in particular.
previous article A Multidimensional Dynamic Measure of Child Disadvantage: A Methodological Tool for Policymakers
next article Does Intergenerational Educational Mobility Shape the Well-Being of Young Europeans? Evidence from the European Social Survey

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now
Footnotes
1
Under the Law of Return, any immigrant to Israel who has at least one Jewish grandparent is entitled to citizenship. This definition is not congruent with the religious definition, which holds that a Jew is anyone whose mother is a Jew.
 
Literature
Amit, K. (2012). Social integration and identity of immigrants from the FSU, Western countries and Ethiopia in Israel. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 35(7), 1287–1310.CrossRef
Amit, K., & Bar Lev, S. (2015). Immigrants’ sense of belonging to the host country: The role of life satisfaction, language proficiency, and religious motives. Social Indicators Research, 124(3), 947–961.CrossRef
Amit, K., & Bollotin-Chachashvili, S. (Eds.) (2007). Ruppin index for immigrants’ integration in Israel—2nd report. The Institute for Immigration and Social Integration, Ruppin Academic Center, Publication no. 2. (Hebrew).
Anniste, K., & Tammaru, T. (2014). Ethnic differences in integration levels and return migration intentions: A study of Estonian migrants in Finland. Demographic Research, 30, 377–412.CrossRef
Bauman, Z. (1996). Alone again: Ethics after certainty. London: Demos.
Baumann, G. (1999). The multicultural riddle: Rethinking national, ethnic and religious identities. New York: Routledge.
Ben-Porat, G. (2013). Between state and synagogue: The secularization of contemporary Israel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Black, R. (2002). Conceptions of “home” and the political geography of refugee repatriation: Between assumption and contested reality in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Applied Geography, 22, 123–138.CrossRef
Bollen, K. A., & Long, J. S. (1993). Testing structural equation models. London: Sage.
Byrne, B. M. (2001). Structural equation modeling with AMOS. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Cassarino, J. P. (2004). Theorizing return migration: The conceptual approach to return migrants revisited. International Journal on Multicultural Societies, 6(2), 253–279.
Castles, S. (2006). Guest-workers in Europe: A resurrection? International Migration Review, 40(4), 741–766.CrossRef
Clarke, S., Gilmour, R., & Garner, S. (2007). Home, identity and community cohesion. In M. Wetherell, M. Lafleche, & R. Berkeley (Eds.), Identity, ethnic diversity and community cohesion. London: Sage Publications.
Cohen, Y. (2011). Size and selectivity patterns of Israeli-born immigrants in OECD countries. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 52(1–2), 45–62.CrossRef
Cohen, R., & Gold, G. (1997). Constructing ethnicity: Myth of return and modes of exclusion among Israelis in Toronto. International Migration, 35(3), 373–394.CrossRef
Cohen, A., & Susser, B. (2000). Israel and the politics of Jewish identity: The secular-religious impasse. London: The John Hopkins University Press.
De Haas, H., & Fokkema, T. (2011). The effects of integration and transnational ties on international return migration intentions. Demographic Research, 25, 755–782.CrossRef
De Haas, H., Fokkema, T., & Fihri, M. F. (2015). Return migration as failure or success? The determinants of return migration intentions among Moroccan migrants in Europe. Journal of International Migration & Integration, 16(2), 415–429.CrossRef
Friedland, R. (2001). Religious nationalism and the problem of collective representation. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 125–152.CrossRef
Guarnizo, L. E. (1997). “Going home”: Class, gender and household transformation among Dominican return migrants. In P. Passar (Ed.), Caribbean circuits: New direction in the study of Caribbean migration (pp. 13–60). New York: Center for Migration Studies.
Haug, S. (2008). Migration networks and migration decision-making. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 34(4), 585–605.CrossRef
Hoyle, R. H. (1995). Structural equation modeling: Concepts, issues, and applications. London: Sage.
Jedwab, J. (2009). National identities and social integration in Canada and Israel. In J. Jedwab & K. Amit (Eds.), Canadian Universe, 1(1) 73–96.
Kheimets, M., & Epstein, A. (2001). Confronting the language of statehood: Theoretical and historical frameworks for the analysis of multilingual Russian Jewish intelligentsia in Israel. Language Problems and Language Planning, 25(2), 43–121.CrossRef
Lerner, J., Rappaport, T., & Lomsky-Feder, E. (2007). The ethnic script in action: The regrounding of Russian Jewish immigrants in Israel. Ethos, 35(2), 168–195.CrossRef
Lissitsa, S., & Peres, Y. (2011). Criteria of sociocultural adjustment: The case of the Russian Community in Israel since 1989. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 35(2), 205–212.CrossRef
Mak, A. S. (1997). Skilled Hong Kong immigrant’s intentions to repatriate. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 6(2), 169–184.CrossRef
Philippov, M., & Soffer, A. (2008). Does the Russian emigration from Israel indicate a failure? Ynet opinion column, February 28, 2008. (Hebrew).
Portes, A., Parker, R. N., & Cobas, J. A. (1980). Assimilation or consciousness: Perceptions of United States society among recent Latin-American immigrants in the United-States. Social Forces, 59(1), 200–224.CrossRef
Portugali, A. (2016). The numbers are exposed. The True Economy website, March 8, 2016. (Hebrew)
Prashizky, A., & Remennick, L. (2016a). Ethnic awakening among Russian Israelis of 1.5 generation: Physical and symbolic dimensions of their belonging and protest. In A. Remennick (Ed.), Social papers: The Russian 1.5 generation in Israel—between protest and belonging (Vol. 18, pp. 1–17). Israel: Sociological Institute for Community Studies, Bar-Ilan University.
Prashizky, A., & Remennick, L. (2016b). Wedding in the town square: Young Russian Israelis protest the religious control of marriage in Tel Aviv. In A. Remennick (Ed.), Social papers: The Russian 1.5 generation in Israel—between protest and belonging (Vol. 18, pp. 34–52). Israel: Sociological Institute for Community Studies, Bar-Ilan University.
Quaked, S. (2002). Transatlantic roundtable on high skilled migration and sending countries issues. International Migration, 40, 153–166.CrossRef
Raijman, R. (2009). Immigration to Israel: A map of trends and empirical research: 1990–2007. Israeli Sociology, 10(2), 339–379. (Hebrew).
Raijman, R., & Pinsky, Y. (2013). Religion, ethnicity and identity: Former Soviet Christian immigrants in Israel. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 36(11), 1687–1705.CrossRef
Rebhun, U., & Lev Ari, L. (2010). American Israelis: Migration, transnationalism and diasporic identities. Boston: Brill.CrossRef
Remennick, L. (2003). The 1.5 generation of Russian immigrants in Israel: Between integration and sociocultural retention. Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 12(1), 39–66.CrossRef
Remennick, L. (2004). Language acquisition, ethnicity and social integration among former Soviet immigrants of the 1990s in Israel. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 27(3), 431–454.CrossRef
Remennick, L. (2006). Russian Jews on three continents: Identity, integration and conflict (pp. 53–168). New Jersey: Transaction Publishers.
Remmennick, L. (2013). Transnational lifestyles among Russian Israelis: A follow-up study. Global Networks, 13(4), 478–497.CrossRef
Rumbaut, R. G., & Ima, K. (1988). The adaptation of Southeast Asian refugee youth: A comparative study. Final Report, Washington, D.C., U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Sabar, G. (2010). Israel and the “holy land”: The religio-political discourse of rights among African migrant laborers and African asylum seekers 1990-2008. African Diaspora, 3, 43–76.CrossRef
Semyonov, M., & Lewin-Epstein, N. (2006). Immigration and ethnicity in Israel: Returning Diaspora and nation-building. In M. Rainer & O. Rainer (Eds.), Diasporas and ethnic migrants (pp. 327–337). London: Frank Cass.
Shenhav, Y. (2006). Modernity and hybridization of national and religion: Zionism and the Jews of the Middle East as a heuristic case. Theory and Society, 36(1), 1–30.CrossRef
Sorek, T., & Ceobanu, A. M. (2009). Religiosity, national identity and legitimacy: Israel as an extreme case. Sociology, 43(3), 477–496.CrossRef
Teo, S. Y. (2011). “The moon back home is brighter”?: Return migration and the cultural politics of belonging. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37(5), 805–820.CrossRef
Waldorf, B. (1995). Determinants of international return migration intentions. Professional Geographer, 47(2), 125–136.CrossRef
Walters, D., Phythian, K., & Anisef, P. (2007). The acculturation of Canadian immigrants: Determinants of ethnic identification with the host society. The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 44(1), 37–64.CrossRef
Waxman, C. I. (2013). Multiculturalism, conversion, and the future of Israel as a modern state. Israel Studies Review, 28(1), 33–53.CrossRef
Weingrod, A., & Leṿi, A. (2006). Paradoxes of homecoming: The Jews and their Diasporas. Anthropological Quarterly, 79(4), 691–716.CrossRef
Ysseldyk, R., Matheson, K., & Anisman, H. (2010). Religiosity as identity: Toward an understanding of religion from a social identity perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14(1), 60–71.CrossRef
Zaiceva, A., & Zimmermann, K. F. (2012). Returning home at times of trouble? Return migration of EU enlargement migrants during the crisis. IZA Discussion Paper No. 7111.
Metadata
Title
Identity, Belonging and Intentions to Leave of First and 1.5 Generation FSU Immigrants in Israel
Author
Karin Amit
Publication date
06-10-2017
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
Social Indicators Research / Issue 3/2018
Print ISSN: 0303-8300
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0921
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1758-2

Other articles of this Issue 3/2018

Social Indicators Research 3/2018 Go to the issue

Original Research

Does Intergenerational Educational Mobility Shape the Well-Being of Young Europeans? Evidence from the European Social Survey

Original Research

The Social Norm to Work and the Well-Being of the Short- and Long-Term Unemployed

OriginalPaper

OECD: One or Many? Ranking Countries with a Composite Well-Being Indicator

OriginalPaper

Wage Losses Due to Overqualification: The Role of Formal Degrees and Occupational Skills

OriginalPaper

Household Financial Access and Use of Alternative Financial Services in the U.S.: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

OriginalPaper

The Value of Job Security: Does Having It Matter?