Cultural and Social Assimilation of Israeli Immigrants in the United States

Abstract

This study examines the differential patterns of cultural and social assimi? lation of Israeli immigrants. Specific variables such as length of stay in the United States, sex, education and occupation were tested for their influence over assimilation. In addition to the description of the data, the study generates new theoretical insight for policy affecting social service delivery to Israeli immigrants. Two hypotheses were tested first, 1) among Israeli immigrants, those with high socioeconomic status achieve a higher degree of cultural assimilation than those with low socioeconomic status; and 2) social assimilation is not related to socioeconomic status among Israeli immigrants. The first hypodiesis was based generally on Gordon's theory (1964), but more specifically on Weinstock's (1964) and Silver's (1964) propositions which state that the higher the occupational status, the greater will be the range of peripheral role elements. Furthermore, they state that the greater the range of peripheral role elements, the greater the pressures and the opportunities for internalizing and displaying related social norms and beliefs of the host society. This would mean that socioeconomic variables may affect the degree of cultural assimilation. The second hypothesis was based on Gordon's (1964) differentiation between cultural and social assimilation. Gordon states that cultural or