Migration, Ethnonationalist Destinations and Social Divisions: Non-Jewish Immigrants in Israel

Abstract

Immigrants in ethno-nationalist destinations encounter difficulties of integration particularly to the extent that they lack shared ethnicity with natives. But an analysis of non-Jewish immigrants in Israel shows that lacking shared ethnicity is by no means an insurmountable obstacle to integration, even in strongly ethno-nationalist destinations. Non-Jewish immigrants – even those who entered as migrant workers – have achieved a certain degree of membership in Israeli society. Moreover, their presence has exacerbated certain divisions among Jewish Israelis. Even in ethno-nationalist destinations, then, the immigration of non-co-ethnics does not result only/inevitably in divisions between immigrants and natives: it can also divide natives, while some immigrants and natives find a measure of common ground.