Labor Migration in the Public Eye: Attitudes Towards Labor Migrants in Israel (original) (raw)

Foreigners and Outsiders: Exclusionary Attitudes Towards Labour Migrants in Israel

This paper examines theoretical propositions regarding the social mechanisms that produce hostility and discriminatory attitudes towards out-group populations. Specifically, we compare the effect of perceptions of socio-economic and national threats, social contact and prejudice on social distance expressed towards labour migrants. To do so, we examine exclusionary views held by majority and minority groups (Jews and Arabs) towards non-Jewish labour migrants in Israel. Data analysis is based on a survey of the adult Israeli population based on a stratified sample of 1,342 respondents, conducted in Israel in 2007. Altogether, our results show that Israelis (both Jews and Arabs) are resistant to accepting and integrating foreigners into Israeli society. Among Jews, this is because the incorporation of non-Jews challenges the definition of Israel as a Jewish state and poses a threat to the homogeneity of the nation. Among Arabs, this is probably due to threat and competition over resources. The meanings of the findings are discussed within the unique ethno-national context of Israeli society and in light of sociological theories on ethnic exclusionism.

Perceived threat and exclusionary attitudes towards foreign workers in Israel

Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2004

The present article focuses on determinants of attitudes towards granting social rights to overseas labour migrants in Israeli society. The analysis is based on a national representative sample of the adult population in Israel. The findings reveal that a substantial number of respondents (both Jews and Arabs) oppose granting equal social rights (i.e. education, welfare, health, housing) to foreign workers. These attitudes can partially be explained as resulting from perceived threat to social and economic well-being of individuals as well as threat to national identity and Jewish character of the state. Part of the exclusionary attitudes that cannot be attributed to threats, are explained by individuals' socio-economic characteristics, ethnicity and political orientation. The findings are discussed within the context of Israel as an ethno-national state.

Migrant workers from the perspective of the Israeli welfare state

Center for Open Access in Science (The 4th International online Conference on Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences), 2020

The phenomenon of work migration and of the entry of foreign workers into the local labor market is explained as a part of the development of a global capitalist economy that creates inequality between countries with surplus capital and countries with surplus working hands. It is also possible to see this as a gap between core countries and peripheral countries and the relationships of the dependence of the latter on the former. Another possible way to examine this is through the mechanisms of social and economic welfare that exist in these countries that absorb migrant workers and that create a comfortable social infrastructure for the absorption of migrant workers and family members who are interested in ensuring for themselves a better future. In the peripheral countries, there are excess labor forces, which in practice are used to fill gaps in manpower in the economies of the core countries. Lacking sources of income, whether due to shortages or war, many residents of peripheral countries are forced to migrate to developed countries, the majority of which have, to some degree or another, mechanisms of a welfare state and which have developed the demand for unskilled workers who do not hesitate to take on any job. While the Palestinian workers worked in the areas of Israel on a daily basis and returned to their place of residence, the massive absorption of the migrant workers from distant countries led to the formation of foreign communities in the large cities and the agricultural communities in Israel. The steadily increasing process of the friction between the citizens of the state and the migrant workers, alongside the steadily increasing competition for work places, increased the social disputes between the low classes and the migrant workers. The process of the reduction of the number of migrant workers was only partially successful following the continual infiltration of illegal foreign workers and the entry of asylum seekers from Africa. From the moment that the government made the decision to deport migrant workers, the rights of migrant workers worsened. The maltreatment of the migrant workers by their employers worsened because of the workers’ constant fear of deportation. Simultaneously, the migrant workers found themselves suddenly stranded in a foreign country without any possibility of approaching the government authorities in cases of the violation of their basic rights.

"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.

9. We and the Others: Majority Attitudes toward Non-Jews in Israel

Handbook of Israel: The Major Debates,vol.1, 2016

Immigration has become a major challenge to most Western countries for economic, political, and moral reasons. In most immigrant-receiving societies an intense debate is raging over issues of justice and fairness in immigrants' entitlement to social goods. Disagreements as to what is just and fair are common in diverse societies in light of the fact that the dominant groups are likely to view immigrants as out-group populations and as competitors for scarce socioeconomic resources. 1 Foreigners are often regarded by citizens as a potential threat to economic success, national identity and the social order, and are likely to become a target for hostility, prejudice and discrimination. 2 The literature suggests that the relative position of an immigrant group in a society is greatly influenced by both public attitudes and government policies. Although the two factors are interdependent, both form the context of reception, which in turn affects the nature and character of ethnic relations in society. 3 Therefore, public attitudes toward immigrants are a key factor in the creation and reproduction of patterns of ethnic inequality and general inter-group tension. First, public opinion toward immigrants transmits signals to them as to whether they are wanted or feared. Second, public sentiments may be contagious, spread to others and be accepted as fact, thereby influencing government policies. 4 Thus, the question about what nation-states owe to immigrants has become one of the major debates in countries with large-scale immigration in general and in Israeli society in particular. In this chapter, we examine attitudes of Jewish respondents toward labor migrants in Israel, a group of non-Jewish immigrants that started arriving in Israel in the early 1990s, when Israel began the massive recruitment of foreign workers. In this undertaking, we rely on a more comprehensive comparative analysis, which includes, in addition to majority group attitudes toward labor migrants, also majority group attitudes toward ethnic (Jewish) immigrants and non-ethnic (non-Jewish) immigrants, both arriving under the provisions of the Law of Return and acquiring Israeli citizenship upon arrival. By this means, we aim to disentangle the interwoven This paper was completed in March 2015.