Foreign Workers in Israel: Global Perspectives: Book Review (original) (raw)

Labor Migration in the Public Eye: Attitudes Towards Labor Migrants in Israel

ZA-Information, 2000

Die Schwerpunkte dieses Artikels sind Einstellungen, Normen und Wertschätzung gegenüber Wanderarbeitern von außerhalb Israels sowie (2) die Abhängigkeit der Einstellungen von demografischen wie sozioökonomischen Merkmalen israelischer Bürger. Die Daten weisen darauf hin, daß Israelis deutlich negative Einstellungen gegenüber Arbeitsmigranten äußern. Diese werden in kultureller, sozialer und politischer Hinsicht ausgegrenzt. Die soziale Ausgrenzung manifestiert sich in sozialer Distanz und der Unterstützung diskriminierenden Verhaltens (besonders wenn es zu einem Eindringen in die Privatsphäre kommt). Darüber hinaus werden die Gastarbeiter häufig nicht nur als Konkurrenten auf dem Arbeitsmarkt gesehen, sondern auch als eine Bedrohung in anderen sozialen Bereichen wie Wohlstand, Ausbildung, Gesundheit und Wohnen. Steigender Wettbewerb um knappe Ressourcen führt zu einer größeren Fremdenfeindlichkeit. Die meisten Israelis scheinen Einwanderern soziale und politische Rechte vorenthalten zu wollen. Ein Teil der verwendeten Items dieser Untersuchung wurde aus dem ALLBUS 1996 übernommen.

The Immigration of Foreign Workers: a Mirror of Israel's Changing Identity (2001)

in Cath Danks, Paul Kennedy, Globalization and Identities: Reconstructing the Local, London : Palgrave, pp.161-174. , 2001

Like 50 many people arriving from the Paris-Lod night-flight, 1 was patiently waiting in line 5 to give my tourist card to the border officer before taking a tlight to Jerusalem. As a Frequent visitor to Israel, 1 was used to queuing and drowsing in front of the counters. But this lime, two events attracted my attention. Firstly, as we were dropped by the bus at the entrance to the terminal an unusual scene was occurring in a corner of the custolm hall. A young police offin'r was insistently questioning a very elegant man holding an attaché case. So far, there was nothing really astonishing except the faet that the latter was wearing a lovely bille bubll braided with gold. A second, no less surprising event soon followed which helped me to recoyer From the languor of waiting. Despite the fact that the travellers seemed tired, 1 could feel a c1amour of excitment growing behind me. Glancing quickly, 1 saw six or maybe seven young men of Asian origin queuing up. They were hastily threading their way towards the counters much to the growing annoyance of the 'patient ones', like me. Nevertheless, as the police officer saw the group, and as one of them raised an envelope, apparently containing a range of passports and documents, everything returnecl to tranqllill.ity and order. They crossed the checkpoint and entered Isra el. Very qllickly, these two events which broke the monotony of my passage through customs, awoke me to the realization that a new phenomenon \Vas affecting Israel: the immigration of foreign workers.

Foreign Workers in Israel. How Ethno-Nationalism prevents Structures of Representation

The main principle the Israeli state relies upon when dealing with documented and undocumented foreign workers is non-involvement. This course of action reflects the restrictive character of Israeli migration regime toward non-Jews. In the first place, the aim is to prevent permanent settlement of foreign workers and therefore , their gradual recognition as residents of Israel. Within the framework of Israeli ethno-nationalism and its immanent dynamic of segregation, foreign workers constitute one isolated group among others. So far the labor migration regime is following ethno-national rules, the labor market can be regularly supplied with workers without challenging the Jewish character of the state. One can observe that recent dynamics in recruitment, such as Asianization, feminization as well as non-recruitment from Arab countries, are not posing a threat to ethno-nationalism but rather consolidate it.

Making room at the table: Incorporation of foreign workers in Israel

Policy and Society, 2010

In this article, we explore how foreign workers’ presence is redefining the identity borders of Israeli society and the challenges posed to Israeliness by the inclusion of first, 1.5 and second generation foreign workers in the Israeli polity. We explore how these migrants perceive life in Israel, their own and their children‘s identities, prospects for incorporation and permanence and intersections between Israeliness and Jewishness. To inform our analysis, we conducted interviews in winter 2010 with 22 foreign workers who are first generation; about half are parents of children in Israel. Our analysis reveals that foreign workers seek acceptance into the Israeli polity, especially for their children who have been socialized into Israeli life and that their potential inclusion has real implications for the understanding of what it means to be Israeli.▶ Foreign workers in Israel are challenging the identity borders of Israeli society, as an ethnonational state in transition. ▶ Foreign workers experience extreme isolation/invisibility, suffer from arbitrary treatment and seek holiness in Israel. ▶ Temporary visas and mistreatment have not precluded attachment and “Israeli” identity development. ▶ The children of foreign workers in Israel create cleavage between Israeliness and Jewishness.

"Perspectives on Labour Migration In Israel"

2003

Despite its resistance to accepting any non-Jewish immigrants, Israel became home in the 1990s and early 2000s to approximately 250,000 migrant workers from regions as diverse as South America, West Africa, the Former Soviet Union, and Southeast Asia, between 60-80,000 of whom were concentrated in South Tel Aviv. The present article provides an overview of the phenomenon of transnational labor migration in Israel and builds upon the current literature in three ways, first of all by introducing the central issues to a Francophone readership. Second, Israeli policies toward migrant workers have changed considerably since mid-2002, and it is necessary to bring the literature up to date. Third, it argues that anthropology and its hallmark research method, ethnography, can make a significant contribution to the study of labor migration in Israel as it has in other migration contexts. In addition to foregrounding the perspectives of migrants themselves – in this case, the perspective from South Tel Aviv, ethnography can also elucidate the broader discursive, ideological, and social contexts in which migration trajectories are constructed, negotiated, and experienced by migrants as well as, and in ongoing interaction with, a diverse array of state, municipal, and civil society actors.

Nationalist Narratives: The double-bind of unemployed Israeli men

2020

Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in West Jerusalem, this thesis explores the lives of Israeli men trying to make meaningful lives in a country both struggling for the status as a Western democracy and at the same time using its own past to justify its very existence. Just as the country is inherently dependent on a past without Palestinians, its people imagine their past and tell stories about their past in order to create this imagined community. These stories are a main focal point in this thesis, both how they are created, how they are used and why they are such big parts of people's lives. Family, war and representations of community are also themes that inform, structure and give meaning to these narratives. As everything seems contested, everything must also be defended, and the family is no exception. Discourses of progress, how democratic countries are imagined, and the changing ideology of the Israeli state are big parts of everyday representations of the Jewish Israeli community. What are the options for creating a meaningful life under these conditions and how does the attempt to achieve a stable state shape its citizens? The core of much of this is how misrecognition works on a community and how this fuel a particularly fervent sort of nationalism. Without the people I met in Jerusalem and elsewhere during my fieldwork, there would be no thesis at this point, and I am therefore hugely indebted to you. Thank you for showing me your world. I'm indebted to a number of people for reading, commenting on and discussing my thesis. Along with that, an even bigger number for bearing with me during the writing period. You know who you are. First, I would like to thank my supervisor Keir Martin for sound advice and intriguing conversations throughout my degree at the University of Oslo. I would also like to thank Thomas Hylland Eriksen for additional comments towards the end of my project. Thanks Annabelle, despite being my anthropology padawan your brutally honest feedbacks and questions about my project have helped shape and structure both research questions and arguments. Much indebted to you I am, yes. None of this would have been possible without my partner, May-Linn. Thank you for being there while I doubted every word I wrote. Our conversations of life and anthropology make me a better human day by day. Much of our lives are made up of intricate webs of coincidences and if my mother had not left for Israel as a 19-year-old, about 30 years ago, this thesis nor I would be here right now. Thank you for opening my eyes to the world, in every sense.