Israeli Central Bureau Of Statistics Research Articles

Long-term effects of international migration: Lessons from Israel

The paper shows that characteristics of immigrants at the time of immigration affect both long-term occupational achievements and income at the end of the labor force career, after age 59. Data representing 174,000 Jewish males 60 and older from a 1985 survey by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics are analyzed to show how the timing of immigration, the number of years in the country, age at immigration, country of origin, and educational resources at time of immigration are related to years in the labor force in the host country, occupational achievement, pension entitlement and income after age 59. Both direct and indirect effects are analyzed. The results show the importance of immigration characteristics on long-term socioeconomic adjustment, and the necessity of considering social status over the life course as an indicator of long-term immigrant adjustment. Decomposition of the effect of country of origin pinpoints what characteristics at time of immigration influence social status differences in ethnic groups at older ages. The discussion includes a number of methodological implications for future studies in immigration.

Effects of Spouses' Characteristics on the Social Roles and Activities of Married Elderly Persons in Israel

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we present findings from a recent national study of elderly persons in Israel which cover two related questions: I. How do spouses' characteristics and activities affect the social participation of married older men and women? 2. Is the effect of husbands' characteristics and activities on wives equivalent or symmetrical to that of wives' characteristics and activities on husbands? The study is based on analyses of data collected in the Israel Survey of Persons Aged 60 and Over in Households, 1985, a national sample survey of households conducted by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics which included approximately 4,500 persons age 60 and over. An innovation of our study has been the design of a data file which enables us to study the activities, role incumbency, and participation of the respondents in relation to the characteristics and activities of their spouses.We study the performance by husbands and wives of social roles designated as ‘major commitment’ roles (MCRs), in that they are roles performed in social contexts invoving commitments over time to the activity and to the social units in which they are carried out: (a) employment, (b) continued parenting involving assistance to adult children, (c) full housekeeping, and (d) volunteer activity. Characteristics and roles of the wives of older married male respondents, and of the husbands of older married female respondents in Israel, are significantly associated with the respondents' performance of the MCRs which we have identified. However, the ‘marginal effects coefficients’ based on logistic regression equations show that the relative weight of spouses' characteristics and roles is small compared with that of the respondents' own characteristics and other competing or mutually supportive roles. There are both symmetries and assymmetries in the patterns of effects of husbands' and wives' characteristics and roles on prevalences of MCRs among the older married respondents.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BRAIN DRAIN: FOREIGN DIPLOMAS AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC ATTAINMENT OF ISRAELI PROFESSIONALS

The reverse side of the brain drain issue pertains to the influx of professional immigrants and returning citizens who underwent their professional training abroad into less developed countries. The influence of foreign diplomas on the socio-economic achievements of such professionals has not yet been studied. The dependent economy approach suggests that professionals whose diplomas were obtained in developed countries may gain a labour market advantage over indigenous diploma holders. Yet the credential society thesis predicts a similar treatment of credential holders, regardless of where their diplomas were obtained, within the framework of power relations of the local status groups. Using the 1984 survey of post-secondary and academic degree holders, conducted by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, our discriminant analysis reveals that diploma holders from European and American countries gained some advantage in occupational attainment, but not in income, over those whose diplomas were granted in African and Asian countries, including Israel. This advantage cannot be explained by the different specialisations of professionals in different countries. It disappears, however, under control of socio-demographic characteristics, which explain variations in training countries among age, ethnic and status groups of the professionals, and independently influence their occupational attainment. The study thus supports the credential society thesis: although Israeli professionals, for various reasons, obtained their diplomas in different countries, their educational credentials are similarly treated in the Israeli labour market, in accordance with the local structure of status groups.

Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics

Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY OF HOSPITAL ADMISSION IN A COMMUNITY OF NEW IMMIGRANTS.

There are many published studies which describe hospitalization from the viewpoint of the hospital or of a group of hospitals, as in the study of Forsyth and Logan (1960); or from the viewpoint of total populations, as published by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (1960), in the Ministry of Health Report on Hospital In-Patient Enquiry for the two years 1956-57 (1961), and by Roth, Acker, Roemer, and Myers (1955) and Acker (1956) in Canada. Where smaller communities have been studied, the subject usually revolves upon the use of general practitioner services within single general practices, as in the studies of Hopkins (1956) and Fry (1959), or within a small number of practices, as in the studies of Logan (1954) and Logan and Cushion (1958). A hospitalization study of a complete community living in a small urban neighbourhood with well delineated geographical boundaries is uncommon. This paper describes hospital in-patient admissions in such a small urban neighbourhood for the four year period 1954 to 1957. Community Surveyed.?These people live in a government housing estate in a suburb of Jerusalem (Kiryat Yovel). The 520 flats were erected specially for new immigrants in 1950-51 and are all of standard design, consisting of one or two rooms, a kitchen-dining room, and a bathroom which also contains a lavatory. There are four to eight flats per building. The number of persons living in this community varied between 1,829 in 1954 and 2,073 in 1957 (Yekutiel and Berendt, 1954-57); altogether 7,723 person-years at risk during the four-year study period (Table I). The residents are new immigrants to Israel from thirty countries, situated in East and Central Europe (28 8 per cent.), North Africa (45 9 per cent.), and the Middle East (24*4 per cent.). Almost all the families immigrated between 1949 and 1951, and all are Jews. The population studied is a young one with a broad-based age structure, as seen in Table I. This is due to a preponderance of young persons (0-39 years) among the North Africans, in contrast to a large proportion of persons aged 60 years and above among the Europeans. The average family size of the