Ethnic Integration in Israel: A Comparative Case Study of Moroccan Brothers Who Settled in France and in Israel

Does Israel discriminate against Moroccans who have immigrated there? In the fall of 1971 the"Oded" movement held its first programmatic conference in Israel and voiced vehement accusations of ethnic dis-crimination. These accusations centered on stereo-typed attitudes and institutional policies and practices that have been discriminatory in effect, if not in intent, and the fact that Moroccans who had immigrated to France had reached significantly higher levels of edu-cational and socioeconomic achievements than their brothers in Israel.

This book reports the results of an empirical study of Moroccan-Jewish emigrants settling in France and in Israel. The sample consisted of 132 matched brothers (66 in France and 66 in Israel); it also includes 109 children of these respondents. In addition, in order to have a.baseline for interpreting the results, a control group of 82 Jewish emigrants from Rumania who settled in Israel (and 64 of their children) is included in the study.

The problem of ethnic stratification in Israel is the main topic of the research. Its originality consists in the adoption of the matched brothers' design found in studies aimed at isolating the influence of social envi-ronments on heart diseases. It casts light on the effect of social structures on occupational mobility, feelings of discrimination, and children's school achieve-ments. These results in turn are related to policies and subprocesses whose consequences, in particular pos-sible de facto discriminatory consequences, are ex-amined.

The results include a cross-cultural documentation of the relationship existing among immigrants be-tween occupational success and national identifica-tion, the effect of two different social structures on children's school achievements, and the discovery of a vulnerable age effect for children who emigrate. The authors use for the first time a multivariate technique proposed by James S. Coleman for estimating the degree to which a matching procedure is satisfactory.

"In the past few years the plight of ethnic minorities in Israel has come to the forefront of the American intellectual community's attention. This well written book adds to our knowledge of Israel's social structure and the attempt at integration by its public officials. . . . [The] book puts the whole question of ethnic stratification in Israel under microscopic analysis and, more importantly, looks at the implications for public policy. . . . This book is a must for all academics interested in the relationships between social science and public policy. It can also be used in courses in comparative race and ethnic relations. I recommend it highly."

--Aubrey Wendell Bonnett, Contemporary Sociology

"In the past few years the plight of ethnic minorities in Israel has come to the forefront of the American intellectual community's attention. This well written book adds to our knowledge of Israel's social structure and the attempt at integration by its public officials. . . . [The] book puts the whole question of ethnic stratification in Israel under microscopic analysis and, more importantly, looks at the implications for public policy. . . . This book is a must for all academics interested in the relationships between social science and public policy. It can also be used in courses in comparative race and ethnic relations. I recommend it highly."

--Aubrey Wendell Bonnett, Contemporary Sociology

-In the past few years the plight of ethnic minorities in Israel has come to the forefront of the American intellectual community's attention. This well written book adds to our knowledge of Israel's social structure and the attempt at integration by its public officials. . . . [The] book puts the whole question of ethnic stratification in Israel under microscopic analysis and, more importantly, looks at the implications for public policy. . . . This book is a must for all academics interested in the relationships between social science and public policy. It can also be used in courses in comparative race and ethnic relations. I recommend it highly.-

--Aubrey Wendell Bonnett, Contemporary Sociology