Short-Run Absorption of the Ex-USSR Immigrants in Israel’s Labor Market

Abstract

The economic literature on the absorption of immigrants in the labor market of the destination country has concentrated on the performance of their wages relative to that of the native population and over time (Borjas, 1985, Chiswick, 1978, LaLonde and Topel, 1992). Relatively few studies have dealt directly with the question of the preservation and transferability of immigrants’ human capital. One such study is that of Friedberg (1991), which measures the transferability of schooling in the country of origin by measuring its effect on earnings in the destination country. Another is that of Ofer, Vinkoor and Ariav (1983), which studied the by-occupation absorption pattern and compared the earnings of those who retained and those who changed their occupation. Another direction of research is that of Beenstock (1993) and Chiswick (1992), which concentrated on language acquisition (as a complementary skill) and its effect on labor-market absorption (probability of finding a job and its quality). Other studies have shown that occupational convergence takes place over time: these include Chiswick (1977) for immigrants to the US, and Amir (1993) for highly educated immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) to Israel during the 1970s.KeywordsHuman CapitalDestination CountryUnskilled WorkerFormer Soviet UnionCentral BureauThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.