Two Ways of Intergrating Immigrants: Israel ‐ Sweden
| Published date | 01 October 1988 |
| Author | S. Lundström |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1988.tb00666.x |
| Date | 01 October 1988 |
TWO WAYS
OF
INTERGRATING IMMIGRANTS:
ISRAEL
-
SWEDEN
It was not until
1984
that
a
formal contact for co-operation was established between
Swede and Israel on immigration matters when
Mrs.
Anita Gradin, then Minister
for
Immigrant Affairs, visited her colleague in Israel, Mr. Ya'acov Tzur, Minister of
Immigrant Absorption. Their mutual agreement on future co-operation resulted in
a
seminar in October
1985,
when a small group of experts
on
migration from Sweden
travelled to Jerusalem to discuss matters concerning the integration of immigrants with
their colleagues in Israel.
The lectures at the seminar are now obtainable, published by the Swedish Ministry of
Labour*. Some of the articles in the report describe the goals
of
integrating poky in
Israel and Sweden, stressing the efforts for newcomers.
For
Israel this implies the
immigration of Jews from different parts of the world and for Sweden the reception of
asylum seekers and refugees.
Why
Co-operation Israel
-
Sweden?
Why should two countries with
so
different backgrounds to immigration and conditions
for integrating immigrants, initiate such co-operation? In her foreword to the report
Mrs. Gradin gives an explanation:
Long before
I
became Minister for Immigrant Affairs, and partly as
a
member of a
kibbutz,
I
got to know Israel as a receiving country. In the summer of
1984,
as
Minister
for Immigrant Affairs, I was able to make a thorough study of Israel's machinery and
policy measures for the integration, absorption of newcomers and for teaching them
Hebrew and introducing them
to
the culture of their new country as rapidly as
possible.
During that visit, my host, Minister of Immigrant Absorption Ya'acov Tzur and
I
agreed to arrange a meeting of our Under-Secretaries of State and a number of experts
from each of our countries for an interchange of experience. Every country, of course,
frames its policies in response to given conditions for the reception of migrants,
newcomers,
olim
(Hebrew expression for immigrants). The policy constructed for
dealing with the needs and demands entailed by international migration can never be
successful without taking into account the cultural, linguistic and other differences which
the individual migrant brings with him.
All countries receiving migrants and refugees therefore need to co-operate, wherever it
is practically possible
or
politically desirable, with countries of origin and countries
which have useful experience to pass on, This latter category includes Israel, one of the
few countries in the world today which are actively working to attract immigrants, in this
case primarily Jews. Israel's long experience of receiving new citizens from almost every
comer of the world makes
its
reception system interesting
to
other receiving
countries.
*
Two Ways
of
Integrating Immigrants, Israel-Sweden,
Ministry of
Labour,
5-103
33
Stockholm,
1987,
free
of
charge.
469
To continue reading
Request your trial