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Svetlana Chachashvili-Bolotin is a lecturer in Ruppin Academic Center in Netanya, Israel. She holds a PhD in Sociology and Anthropology from Tel Aviv University. Her main areas of research include migration, social stratification, sociology of education and research methods.
ABSTRACT
In the 1990s, nearly one million immigrants from the former Soviet Union immigrated to Israel, increasing Israel's population by about 10%. These immigrants were generally well educated, but lacked economic means. The purpose of the current study is to expand on the field of immigrant integration in the host society by examining the educational outcomes among the recently-arrived immigrant students from the FSU in comparison with native Israeli students. The sample consisted of 35,794 students, who were Israeli-born or who had immigrated from the FSU since 1990 and who were enrolled in tenth grade during any of the years 1992-94. Two main findings arose from the study. Firstly, immigrants' educational achievement tended to be polarized. Recently-arrived immigrant students proved more likely than native Israelis to drop out of school, but were also more likely to be eligible for an advanced matriculation certificate. Secondly, their study patterns were characterized by high levels of educational segregation by fields of study: they were more inclined to attend vocational tracks and to study science and technology than Israeli-born students. It can be supposed that immigrants, who were economically disadvantaged, tended to prefer educational tracks which they expected would provide their offspring with an immediate economic safety net.
INTRODUCTION
For several decades now, economically advanced societies have been receiving large immigration waves from Eastern European countries. In the decades following the disintegration of the USSR, some eight or nine million immigrants left the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and have settled in Israel, North America and Western Europe (Fialkova and Yelenevskaya 2007). Although most of them arrived with slight economic means, their educational attainments were quite high. About 40% held post-secondary degrees and were employed as professionals prior to emigrating, while less than six percent were unskilled workers. This immigration wave resembles other immigrant groups who were poor on arrival but were well educated, such as Sikhs and several East Asian groups (Basran and Bolarla 2003; Portes and Rumbaut 2001).
The purpose of the current study is to expand on...