Immigrants and Bureaucrats: Ethiopians in an Israeli Absorption Center

Since Israel is primarily a country of immigrants, the state takes on the responsibility for the settlement and integration of each new group. It therefore sees its role as benevolent and indispensable to the welfare of the immigrants. This be true to some extent. However, the overwhelming effect, the author argues, is exactly the opposite: in her study of Ethiopian immigrants she reaches the conclusion that the absorption centers, which are central to Israeli immigration policy, present an extreme case of bureaucratic control over immigrants; they hinder rather than facilitate integration through the creation of power-dependence relations, with immigrants - whose lives and social structures are constantly interfered with by the officials - being cast as weak, defenseless and needy. They are reduced to helpless charges of these officials whose main goals are to expand and perpetuate their respective organizations and to consolidate their own positions within them. Thus the absorption centers, rather than furthering integration, create dependence on state control and social segregation.

Esther Hertzog was a social worker and school teacher before training as a Social Anthropologist. She is now Lecturer in Sociology and Anthropology at Beit Berl College.

Subject: Refugee and Migration Studies Anthropology (General)

Area: Middle East & Israel

Subject Codes

LC: DS113.8.F34 H4813 1999

BL: YC.1999.a.6210

BISAC:
SOC007000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Emigration & Immigration;
SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social

BIC:
JFFN Migration, immigration & emigration;
JHM Anthropology

Chapter 1. The Center as a Dependent System
Chapter 2. Closure and Emergence of Power-Dependence Relations
Chapter 3. The Ethiopian Immigrants as a Social Category and Social Problem
Chapter 4. Social Closure and Power-Dependence Relationships at the Galuyot Absorption Center
Chapter 5. Categorizing Women: An Example of Bureaucratic Influence on Family Organization
Chapter 6. The Role of “Cultural Explanations” in Gender-Based Relations

Conclusion

Select Bibliography
Index

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Volume 7

New Directions in Anthropology

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Immigrants and Bureaucrats

Ethiopians in an Israeli Absorption Center

Esther HertzogWith a Preface by Emanuel Marx

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Description

Subject: Refugee and Migration StudiesAnthropology (General)

Area: Middle East & Israel

Contents

Of Related Interest

The State and the Grassroots

Immigrant Transnational Organizations in Four Continents

The End of the Refugee Cycle?

Refugee Repatriation and Reconstruction

Going First Class?

New Approaches to Privileged Travel and Movement

Cultures of Exile

Images of Displacement

Library Recommendation Form

Esther Hertzog
With a Preface by Emanuel Marx

Subject: Refugee and Migration Studies Anthropology (General)