Sense of Belonging and Life Satisfaction among Post‐1990 Immigrants in Israel
| Date | 01 June 2018 |
| Published date | 01 June 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12386 |
| Author | Rebeca Raijman,Rona Geffen |
Sense of Belonging and Life Satisfaction
among Post-1990 Immigrants in Israel
Rebeca Raijman* and Rona Geffen*
ABSTRACT
In this paper we contribute to the study of immigrants’integration into the host society by
focusing on two subjective indicators of integration: life satisfaction and sense of belonging.
The analysis is performed on post-1990 immigrants in Israel with data obtained from the
‘Immigrant Survey’conducted by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. The findings show
that while life satisfaction is affected by all forms of incorporation (structural, acculturation,
identificational), immigrants’sense of belonging to Israeli society seems mainly related to pro-
cesses of identity re-definition in the host society, and mostly determined by strength of Jewish
identity, ideological motives for going to Israel, and the ways by which immigrants perceive
they are defined by Israelis (as a member of the majority group or as a member of an ethnic
group). The results also reveal that when utilizing SEM procedure for estimating simultaneous
effects of both subjective measures of assimilation, sense of belonging to the new society
strongly affects immigrants’life satisfaction but not the other way around. We discuss the
findings and their meaning in light of theory and within the context of Israeli society.
INTRODUCTION
The ways immigrants integrate into host societies have become a major research topic in the social
sciences. To date the great majority of relevant literature has focused on objective indicators of
integration: labour market outcomes, educational attainment, language proficiency, intermarriage
(see e.g. Portes and Rumbaut, 2006; Waters and Jimenez, 2005). Lately, some scholars have exam-
ined subjective perceptions of integration such as sense of belonging and life satisfaction or happi-
ness (Amit, 2010; Amit and Bar Lev, 2015; Amit and Litwin, 2010; Bartram, 2011; Caballero,
2011; Phinney et al., 2001; Safi, 2010; Sapeha, 2015; Verkuyten, 2008; Wu et al., 2012) thus com-
plementing our understanding of the processes whereby immigrants assimilate into host societies.
Migration scholars mostly focus on the identity of immigrants in the receiving societies (e.g. Amit,
2012; Berry, 1997; Phinney et al., 2001) to assess patterns of integration. However, recent studies
turn their attention to the concept “sense of belonging”(e.g. Amit, 2012; Caballero, 2011; Wu et al.,
2012). Antonsich (2010), summarizing this scholarship, offers a comprehensive analysis. He defines
“belonging”as a “personal, intimate, feeling of being ‘at home’in a place (place-belongingness)”
(p. 645). In this context, place is felt as “home,”so to belong means finding a place where an indi-
vidual can feel “at home”(p. 646). A strong sense of belonging to the host society can therefore be
interpreted as successful integration (at least subjectively) in the host society (Caballero, 2011: 21).
Likewise, life satisfaction has long been the focus of intensive research, with scholars identifying it
as one of the major indicators of individuals’well-being in society in general (see e.g. Diener, 2009;
Diener and Diener, 2009). Regarding immigration, life satisfaction or reported subjective well-being
*University of Haifa, Israel
doi: 10.1111/imig.12386
©2017 The Authors
International Migration ©2017 IOM
International Migration Vol. 56 (3) 2018
ISS N 00 20- 7985 Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
is interpreted as immigrants’evaluation of the quality of life they experience in the receiving country
and as a valid indicator of the immigration experience (see e.g. Amit, 2010; Safi, 2010; Verkuyten,
2008). Our objective is to contribute to this line of inquiry by using Israel as a case study. We exam-
ine two dimensions of subjective perceptions of integration: sense of belonging to the host-society
and satisfaction with life; and we propose a theoretical model to identify the factors explaining each
of these subjective perceptions, as well as the reciprocal effects of the two measures.
After presenting the Israeli context and the flows of immigration into the country, we review the-
ories and previous research to formulate a comprehensive model of determinants of subjective mea-
sures of integration. We set forth the dataset and list the variables used in the data analysis.
Thereafter we analyse the data and present the findings. Lastly we discuss the findings and their
meaning in light of sociological theories and within the context of Israeli society.
ISRAEL AS A COUNTRY OF JEWISH IMMIGRATION
Israel is a society of immigrants and their offspring. At the end of 2012, 27 per cent of the Jewish
majority were foreign-born, 32 per cent were Israeli-born to immigrant parents (second generation),
and 41 per cent were Israeli-born to Israeli-born parents (third generation) (Raijman, 2016). In the
early 1990s Israel witnessed a renewal of large immigration flows, with 1,241,226 newcomers
arriving between 1990 and 2010 to a society of less than 4.5 million (Raijman and Kemp, 2010).
Three major groups entered then, under the provisions of the Law of Return: immigrants from the
former Soviet Union (hereinafter FSU), immigrants from Ethiopia, and immigrants from countries
in Europe and America. FSU immigrants comprised 86 per cent of all immigrants in the 1990s, as
against 59 per cent of those arriving in the 2000s. They were characterized by a very high level of
education and professional qualifications (two thirds of the adult immigrants had academic educa-
tion and professional and scientific training).
Concomitant with the FSU immigrants’arrival in Israel was the entry of immigrants from Ethio-
pia. The latter comprised 4.1 percent of all immigrants in the 1990s (many brought to Israel
through state-initiated and organized operations) and 10.2 percent of those arriving in the 2000s.
Religious motives, the desire to reunite with family members already in Israel, and push factors
such as the difficult economic and political situation in Ethiopia—all set the stage for mass depar-
ture of Ethiopian Jews for Israel (Friedman and Santamaria, 1990). Overall, Ethiopian immigrants
display very low levels of educational and occupational attainment in Israel (Offer, 2004). For the
first time in Israeli society, the Ethiopian immigration has given rise to racial cleavages, augment-
ing existing ethno-national, class, and religious cleavages.
Accompanying the mass inflow of immigrants from the FSU and Ethiopia was a much sparser
but steady influx of Jewish immigrants from Western and Central Europe (especially from France
and the United Kingdom) and North and South America (mainly the United States and Argentina)
(hereinafter EUAM) (7.7 percent of all immigrants arriving in the 1990s and 24.8 percent of all
immigrants arriving in the 2000s). These are a selected population, displaying relatively high levels
of education and socio-economic attainment. In light of the distinctive characteristics of the immi-
grant groups, the data analysis takes into consideration possible differences in subjective indicators
of integration associated with ethnic origin of the immigrant groups in Israel.
THEORY AND PREVIOUS RESEARCH
Amit and Bar-Lev (2015) have suggested that immigrants’sense of belonging to their new country
is a complex concept, embracing three core dimensions: national identity, feeling at home, and
Post-1990 Immigrants in Israel 143
©2017 The Authors. International Migration ©2017 IOM
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