בין שיזור להתבדלות דפוסי קליטתם של יוצאי ברית-המועצות לשעבר בישראל בחמש השנים הראשונות לעלייתם (סקירת ממצאי מחקרים ראשוניים)

Analyzing the absorption pattern of the latest immigration wave from the Former Soviet Union, reveals several trends. Although the unemployment rate among the immigrants is decreasing all the time, the number of immigrants who cannot find work in their professions is on the increase. Israeli society has yet to formulate the ideas and to devise the means to absorb this human capital and to prevent the expansion of the circle of poverty beyond the weaker groups of this immigration such as the elderly, the sick, the Chernobyl victims, and the single-parent families. The social absorption of the immigrants is influenced, in part, by their economic absorption. Economic hardship has had the effect of restricting the social horizon of the immigrants beyond the restriction that would be expected among immigrant populations in general. It could also be attributed to social patterns that they brought with them: In the Former Soviet Union, social ties tended to be confined to small groups of persons who could be trusted. The cultural absorption of this group of immigrants has been very problematic. Their attitudes to cultural absorption range along a continuum with separatism and the wish to perpetuate their original rich culture at one extreme and full integration according to the integrative pluralistic model of Israeli society, at the other. The question is which trend will prevail: the separatist trend which tends to accompany economic distress and loss of professional pride, or the trend toward dialogue and accommodation to the values of Israeli society. Unlike previous waves of immigration, this immigration is not only subject to shaping by Israeli society; it may actually contribute to the shaping of Israeli society. The question is whether the end-product will be a society consisting of two overlapping cultural circles with a core culture held in common, or whether the two cultural circles will co-exist but in total separation.