Author: DellaPergola, Sergio

Source: Israel Studies Review, Volume 26, Number 2, Winter 2011 , pp. 1-27(27)

Publisher: Berghahn Journals

Abstract:

In response to Ian Lustick's article on Israel's migration balance in the previous issue of Israel Studies Review, I question the author's (lack of) theoretical frame, data handling, and conclusions, all set up against a robust narrative. I show that, until 2010, Israel displayed a positive, if weakened, migration balance and that immigration trends continued to reflect conditions among Diaspora Jewish populations more than Israel's absorption context. Emigration rates from Israel, while admittedly difficult to measure, were objectively moderate and proportionally lower, for example, than those of Switzerland, a more developed country of similar size, or those of ethnic Germans returning to and then again leaving Germany. The main determinants of emigration from Israel—namely, 'brain drain'—consistently related to socio-economic changes and not to security. I also reject Lustick's assumptions about the ideological bias of Israel's research community when dealing with international migration. Scholarship about Israel should not ignore global contextualization and international comparisons.

This article includes Ian S. Lustick's response to Professor Sergio DellaPergola in "Leaving the Villa and Touching a Raw Nerve."

Keywords: ALIYAH; ECONOMY; EMIGRATION; IMMIGRATION; ISRAEL; LUSTICK; SECURITY; YERIDAH; ZIONISM

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/isr.2011.260202

Affiliations: 1: Professor Emeritus of Israeldiaspora Relations at the Hebrew University's Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry

Publication date: 2011-12-01

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  This title was previously known as Israel Studies Forum
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