The Immigration Policy of Israel, 1948-1994
This paper will discuss the immigration policies of the State of Israel, from the time of its inception to the present day. The overall policy has remained unchanged since the declaration of independence in 1948: all Jews from anywhere in the world are welcome to "return" to Israel and live as Israeli citizens. This policy applies only to Jews and Jewish immigration is the only kind of immigration which is welcomed. Within this overall policy, however, Jews from certain parts of the world are more welcome than others and receive preferential treatment. Jews from Europe and North America are preferred to, and enjoy several advantages over, Jews from Asian and African countries. Ironically, Jews from the latter group of countries have tended to outnumber those from the former group of countries and this has led to resentment and charges of discrimination by a very large segment of the Israeli population. The first part of the paper will examine the overall policy and briefly describe the history of Israeli immigration. The second part of the paper will discuss some of the problems which have arisen.
The state of Israel was established with the intention of providing a homeland for Jews all over the world. Consequently, an "open door" immigration policy was announced with the declaration of independence in 1948, a policy which applied only to Jews. Under the Law of Return, the codification of the immigration policy enacted in 1950, one Jewish grandparent qualified a person, along with his or her spouse and children, for automatic Israeli citizenship. (Rosenthal, 1992, p. 37). This policy adhered to one of the central principles of Zionism: that an Israeli state would be open to all Jews who wished to end their part in the Diaspora. (Sachar, 1986, p. 395).
Aside from the idealistic reasons, however, the government needed an instant population for several practical reasons....