THE ISRAEL Equality ISSN 0792-7010 © All rights reserved to Monitor Adva Center ISSUE NO. 11 JUNE 2002 Published by Adva Center and the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews Ethiopian Israelis Housing, Employment, Education Shlomo Swirski, Barbara Swirski There are approximately 85,000 Jews of Ethiopian extraction in Israel, including 23,000 who are Israeli- Housing born. Most immigration from Ethiopia came in two waves–8,000 in Operation Moses (1984) and 14,000 in Most Ethiopian Israelis reside in close proximity to one Operation Solomon. another in disadvantaged neighborhoods within a small This report, written ten years after Operation number of cities and towns. Solomon, examines social policy in regard to Ethiopian This is contrary to the declared intentions of the immigrants in three main areas–housing, employment, official absorption policy. First, that policy aimed to and education–and asks how these Jews are faring in prevent the development of Ethiopian “ghettos.” Israel. Second, the policy aimed to steer Ethiopian immigrants toward middle-class neighborhoods. Third, the official policy encouraged these immigrants to purchase homes Contents in the center of the country, where employment and Housing 1 social services abound, and not in peripheral areas. Employment 12 The first two policy aims have not been achieved; Education 27 the third has been achieved to some extent. Sources 42 Ethiopian Israelis Housing, Employment, Education 1 Housing Situation medical care. After three months, they were to begin Data from the Ministry of Construction and Housing, learning Hebrew and familiarizing themselves with life released in 2001, show that most Ethiopian immigrants in Israel by means of intermediaries such as live in permanent housing that they own. Between paraprofessionals from the community, social workers, 1988 and April 2001, 10,542 Ethiopian immigrant and other caregivers. The first government plan households purchased apartments with the help of a described the anticipated process thus: “During the first government mortgage (Ministry of Construction and period, they will undergo medical examinations and Housing, memorandum, July 2001). treatment and afterwards devote their time to learning Most other households of Ethiopian origin live in how to function at a basic level at home and in the rented public housing. In June 2001, according to the [new] environment, and to learning Hebrew” (Ministry Amigur and Amidar public housing companies, 23,300 of Immigrant Absorption 4: 1985). Absorption centers persons of Ethiopian extraction (29 percent of the were also supposed to serve as “transit stations” until Ethiopian community) lived in public housing (Amidar family members still in Ethiopia could be flown to memorandum, July 11, 2001, and Amigur Israel and families could be reunited before their memorandum, July 5, 2001); 2,000 dwelled in mobile transfer to permanent housing. homes (Amidar, memorandum, July 5, 2001), and The plan was that in Stage Two, a year later, the about 3,000 lived in immigrant absorption centers immigrants would move into permanent housing and (Brookdale Institute, 2001:15). continue to receive help in various areas, including Most immigrants who still live in absorption centers language study, vocational training, and social and mobile homes arrived recently. (In 1999 and 2000, integration. there were about 2,000 immigrants from Ethiopia each In fact, most of the immigrants stayed in absorption year [Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, centers for more than one year. www.moia.gov.il] and in 2001 there were approximately 3,300 [Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, 2002].) Some young singles who came in Control and Dependency previous years are also still living in mobile homes. The anthropologist Esther Herzog, who studied the experiences of Ethiopian immigrants in Jewish Agency Ethiopian Immigrants absorption centers (1998), claims that mediated Mediated vs. Direct Absorption absorption helped to label Ethiopian immigrants as a Immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who arrived particularly problematic group: “The absorption en masse in the 1990s, were integrated in a process organizations treat ‘immigrant absorption’ as a social termed “direct absorption,” i.e., the authorities did not problem and immigrants as a social category in need of get involved in decisions such as choice of place of assistance. They treat the ‘absorption of Ethiopian residence, employment, and lifestyle. immigrants’ as a particular problem and Ethiopian The direct absorption policy was not applied in the case immigrants as a particularly needy social category” of Ethiopian immigrants. When the first large group of (ibid.: 73). Herzog describes mediated absorption as a Ethiopian immigrants reached the country, in Operation process that aggrandizes the power of petty officials and Moses, it was decided that the Jewish Agency would be hinders integration. Absorption centers, Herzog asserts, responsible for their absorption and that the process are closed, sheltered institutions that encourage people to would last five years. In the first stage, the immigrants relate to immigrants “as one homogeneous essence, one would be given temporary housing in immigrant- bloc, a category” (ibid.: 35). She shows how the absorption centers, hotels converted into absorption institution monitors the immigrants’ comings and goings centers, and public housing. In the second stage, a year and how the employees at the center and the immigrants later, they would be settled in permanent housing. develop a relationship of control and dependency. During their stay in temporary housing, the immigrants would undergo medical examinations and receive 2 The Israel Equality Monitor June 2002 The reason given for the decision to task the Jewish 1960s. Those immigrants were sent upon arrival to Agency with the absorption of Ethiopian immigrants, temporary camps, transit camps, and development rather than to apply the direct absorption policy, was towns that were typically far from centers of the immigrants’ low educational level and lack of employment and culture, provided no more than resources upon arrival. It may also have been due to the rudimentary public services, and offered little absence in Israel of a critical mass of old-timers of opportunity for personal or collective advancement. Ethiopian extraction who could function as guides in To keep the problems of the 1950s from recurring, the the direct absorption process. government declared its wish to send the Ethiopian An additional factor deserves mention: immigration immigrants to fifty localities that ranked on the middle, from Ethiopia was a lifesaver for the institutions of the rather than the bottom, of the socioeconomic scale. The Jewish Agency, which were on the verge of Ministry of Immigrant Absorption even stipulated that dismantlement. Since the direct integration of former efforts should be made to avoid having more than thirty Soviet immigrants left the Agency with nothing to do, to fifty Ethiopian households in one neighborhood and the Agency was about to hand over its traditional role more than two or three Ethiopian households in one in immigrant absorption, including absorption centers, building or building entrance. In 1991, it was stipulated to the government. The Ethiopian immigrant that Ethiopian immigrants should not constitute more absorption project gave the Jewish Agency’s absorption than 2-4 percent of the population of any neighborhood apparatus a new lease on life and funneled tens of or locality (Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, 1985: millions of dollars–from the U.S. government, the 49-53; Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, 1991: 20- Israeli government, and American Jewish 21). philanthropy–into its coffers (Lazin, 1997: 45-46). It was also decided that Ethiopian immigrants would not be sent to localities in the two lowest clusters of the Direct Absorption socioeconomic scale: “It is recommended that these When the direct absorption policy was extended to a immigrants be sent to localities that have sufficiently small group of Ethiopian immigrants, they came out strong community infrastructure in education, ahead. In April 1994, a direct absorption experiment employment, and socio-community services.… They carried out in three localities in the Negev – Ofakim, should not be imposed on communities that have Dimona, and Arad – including 263 households, was difficulty sustaining themselves” (Ministry of examined in a report compiled by adult participants in a Immigrant Absorption, 1985: 47). leadership-training program. (Notably, unlike the direct Concentration vs. Dispersion absorption of former Soviet immigrants, these immigrants were assigned paraprofessional community Concern about concentrations of Ethiopian Israelis lies at workers like those paired with Ethiopian immigrants the core of many official discussions and documents. housed in absorption centers.) In questionnaires that Even today policymakers and policy analysts find the authors of the report distributed to the paraprofessionals, issue troublesome. Many point to concentration as the two issues were examined: the degree of independence result of a unique preference among Ethiopian Israelis. that the immigrants had developed and the cost of the The Central Bureau of Statistics did this, for example, system. The results: the paraprofessionals found direct when it indicated that “It is characteristic of Ethiopian integration less expensive than the normal process and immigrants to wish to live with