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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780253222213 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Indiana University Press |
| Publication date: | 07/08/2010 |
| Pages: | 278 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d) |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Latino Migrants in the Jewish State
Undocumented Lives in Israel
By Barak Kalir
Indiana University Press
Copyright © 2010 Barak KalirAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-253-35507-2
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Undocumented Belonging
An ambiguity, then, is not satisfying in itself, nor is it ... a thing to be attempted; it must in each case arise from, and be justified by, the peculiar requirements of the situation. — William Empson
In 2004, after a decade in Israel, Daniel was arrested when the Immigration Police raided the aluminum workshop in which he had worked for more than seven years. Eldad, the Israeli owner of the small workshop in south Tel Aviv, pleaded with the police officers to release Daniel, telling them what a loyal and well-behaved worker Daniel was. As the determined police officers handcuffed Daniel and pushed him into their patrol car, Eldad resentfully lashed at them: "What harm would it do to anyone if you let him stay? He's a better person than most Israelis I know." Two days later Daniel was deported from Israel. Three weeks later Daniel's wife, Esther, and their two boys, Yuval and Nadav, left Israel to join him in Ecuador. On the way to the airport, with their lives in Israel packed into four giant suitcases, Esther fixed her eyes on a distant point outside the window of the taxi, trying to hide from her children an unstoppable stream of tears. Yuval, who turned seven just before his father was deported, held his mother's hand and gently but desperately asked, what he already knew by then to be a hopeless question: "But Mami, why do we have to leave? Why can't Papi come back to us here?"
Daniel and Esther were non-Jewish undocumented migrants in Israel. As such, they were part of a larger group of an estimated twelve thousand undocumented migrants who reached Israel from different countries in Latin America and settled there in the mid 1990s. The couple's children, Yuval and Nadav, were both born in Israel. They were now on their way to Ecuador, a country that they did not know but had heard much about.
This ethnographic study describes and analyzes the immigration and lives of Latinos in Israel. Based on extensive fieldwork among Latinos in Israel, as well as among returnees, deportees, and potential migrants in Ecuador, the book traces the full circle of this migration flow, beginning with how the idea of emigrating to Israel first emerged in the minds of many non-Jewish people across Latin America. What life strategies did Latinos develop in order to mitigate their precarious undocumented status in Israel? What were their relations with other Latinos and with Israeli employers, ordinary citizens, and officials? This ethnography focuses on the lived realities of Latinos as they found accommodation and jobs, made friends, developed a rich recreational scene, formed families, raised children, attempted political mobilization, and developed a deep sense of belonging to Israeli society.
In its capacity as a Jewish state, Israel represents an extreme case in which the dominant Jewish national group has managed formally to imprint its own ethnoreligious identity onto the very logic of the state. Israel adheres to the principle of ius sanguinis (literally, law of the blood), qualifying the incorporation of immigrants by an ethnic belonging to what Zionism has redefined as the Jewish nation. With a declared purpose to serve as a home for all Jews, and driven by a Zionist ideology that called for the "Ingathering of the Diaspora" (Kibutz Galuyot), Israel actively encouraged and financially facilitated the immigration of Jews worldwide. At the same time, Israel utterly rejected non-Jewish immigration, not least in order to prevent the return of thousands of Palestinians who fled the country when the Independence War broke out in 1948. The notion of national belonging in Israel is being challenged regularly by Palestinian citizens of Israel and the wider Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East.
In this book I offer a different take by considering the strategies and impact of Latinos, and non-Jewish undocumented migrants in general, on the construction of national belonging in Israel. Why, for the first time in the country's history, did approximately one hundred thousand undocumented migrants enter Israel in the mid-1990s and settle down? How did the Israeli public, and Israeli civil society actors in particular, react to the settlement of undocumented non-Jewish migrants? What eventually led Israel in 2003 to deport the majority of undocumented migrants, and then in 2005 to legalize the status of a few hundreds of them?
The influx of Latino migrants from the other side of the globe into a country that is fraught with territorial and national conflicts offers a vivid illustration of the uneven process of globalization. This migratory trajectory becomes even more interesting when we consider that there are no historic connections — colonial, economic, or cultural — between Israel and Latin American countries of the kind that could readily stimulate or assist the development of migration flows. While Latinos in Israel developed social and religious networks that span various parts of Latin America, their condition in Israel represented a case of what I call "constrained transnationalism." Given the cost of traveling back and forth between Israel and Latin America, and even more the fact that it was very difficult for exiting undocumented migrants to re-enter Israel, most Latinos never went back to visit their countries of origin. The experiences of undocumented migrants under this variant of "constrained transnationalism" have not received much attention in the literature on transnational migrants.
Officially, the state of Israel categorized non-Jewish undocumented migrants as deportable trespassers. In 1996, when the Israeli government first decided to address the phenomenon, it launched a campaign to deport undocumented migrants, whose presence in Israel was called a "social ticking time bomb" by some politicians. While deportation was repeatedly championed as the sole solution for confronting the "problem," the earnestness of Israel's deportation policy varied in the years thereafter. In fact, it can be argued that in practice, until the year 2002, Israel largely turned a blind eye to the presence of non-Jewish undocumented migrants. Yet in September 2002, the government moved vigorously to implement a decision to deport tens of thousands of undocumented migrants. A mighty and heavily funded Immigration Police was established, and its agents managed to arrest and deport thousands of undocumented migrants as well as to create a ripple effect of intimidation that induced tens of thousands more undocumented migrants to exit the country. As part of this move toward a much more aggressive line of action against undocumented migrants, Eli Yishai, Israel's interior minister, reiterated his view on the "problem":
I want everybody who is not Jewish out of this country. Non-Jewish migrants come here and build churches! They should stay in their own countries. We must negate all migrants who are not Jewish according to the Halacha [the Jewish law]. ... There are families in Israel with Christmas trees, something we never knew here before. They cause acculturation and deterioration of the values of the Jewish state. We want to build here in the Jewish state synagogues and not churches. (Maariv 25.11.2002)
In his capacity as a democratically elected MP and an appointed interior minister, Eli Yishai's statement clearly represented the broader uncompromising inclination of the state of Israel to preserve its Jewish character and prevent the settlement of non-Jewish migrants in it.
A few days after the interior minister's combative statement was aired, I was walking in one of Tel Aviv's busiest streets with Antonio, a non-Jewish undocumented immigrant from Ecuador. At one point and for no apparent reason, Antonio spontaneously told me:
It is amazing but there is no racism in Israel. Nobody treats you badly here because of who you are. I know that Eli Yishai and some other bad politicians want us out, but they do not represent the people here. Israelis are warm and open. It is a blessed country and I am proud to be here. If I could, I would stay here forever. We feel at home here. We work and we live here, and we get along with everyone. My children go to Israeli schools, and if I were only allowed to, I would join the Israeli army tomorrow and defend this land with my life.
Antonio's statement was pronounced not so much in a conversational mode that necessitated my response, but rather as a counter-statement directed straight at the Israeli interior minister in a virtual debate taking place in front of an Israeli-Jewish public. Antonio, like many other Latinos, had been living in Israel for more than eight years, ample time to experience and understand life as an undocumented Latino migrant. Antonio's statement represented the larger ability of many Latinos to establish their economic and family life in Israel, and to develop a strong sense of belonging to the country and its people.
De Facto Integration into Society versus Official Rejection by the State
Latinos were part of a larger flow of undocumented migrants who reached Israel from four continents and more than ninety countries. Although estimates of undocumented migrants' numbers in Israel have been disputed and politicized, most statistics indicate that in the late 1990s around one hundred thousand undocumented migrants resided in Israel (Ministry of Labor 2000). Like most undocumented migrants, Latinos resided initially in the poor neighborhoods of south Tel Aviv, Israel's economic capital and most secular city. They worked mostly as domestic servants and office cleaners in the affluent northern parts of the city and its middle-class suburbs. Latinos earned what they perceived to be highly attractive salaries of around US$1,000 per month. Many Latino families were reunited in Israel after the initial immigration of one of the spouses, while numerous new households were formed when single Latino migrants met and got married in Israel.
Although their immigration was often emotionally taxing, and the process of settlement always involved hardship, most Latinos adapted well to their new lives. Despite their undocumented status as migrants, Latinos were able to enjoy much improved livelihood, rich family and social life, and a vibrant recreational scene. It was not uncommon to hear them casting positive judgments on their lives in Israel and their interactions with Israelis. It was especially interesting to hear the perceived cultural similarities that many Latinos claimed to share with Israelis. This perceived cultural closeness was neatly captured by Guirremo, a 29-year-old undocumented migrant from Colombia, who once at a social gathering cheerfully proclaimed that "Israelis are the Latinos of the Middle East."
For their part, Israelis often expressed positive images of Latinos, singling them out for being "more like us." Israelis tended to associate Latinos with favorable contributions to Israeli culture, referring to Latinos' passion for football, music, food, and "lively and open lifestyle." Israelis have experienced multiple exposures to Latino culture in recent years, from the popularity of Latino music on the radio to the widespread broadcasting of Latino soap operas (telenovelas) on television, and from massive support among Israelis for South American football to the attractiveness of various countries in Latin America as a travel destination for tens of thousands of young Israelis after their release from obligatory military service.
When a social demographer asked seventy Israeli residents in south Tel Aviv about their views of the four major groups of "foreigners" — Africans, Romanians, Filipinos, and Latinos — he discovered that while on average only 20 percent of Israelis held a positive image of "foreigners," 66 percent held a favorable image with respect to Latinos. In accounting for this marked positive Israeli perception of Latinos, it was argued that "[t]he presence of Latinos is less striking in public spaces [and] they more openly engage in their way of life with Israeli society" (Schnell 1999: 50–51).
I am not trying to draw here an overly harmonious picture of the lived realities of Latinos in Israel. Let there be no doubt about the exploitation experienced by some Latinos from greedy and callous Israeli employers, or the ruthless treatment that hapless Latinos, like many other undocumented migrants, received when they were pulled out of their beds by the Israeli Immigration Police who raided their apartments in the middle of the night. On the contrary, it is precisely because such incidents were not uncommon for undocumented migrants in Israel that I find it particularly interesting to focus on and explicate the positive interactions between Latinos and Israeli citizens.
One important factor that distinguished Latinos from other undocumented migrants in Israel was the fact that Latinos' phenotypical resemblance to Israelis did not cause them to stick out in an Israeli crowd. The hair color, complexion, and general appearance of most Latinos allowed them to "pass as" Israelis, to use Goffman's term (1963). As Willen (2007: 15) asserts,
Although there exists considerable cultural and ethnic heterogeneity within Israeli society, most citizens — whether Jewish or Palestinian Arab — are, and phenotypically appear to be, of either European or Middle Eastern decent. Until the 1990s, this relative homogeneity meant that many Israelis had never seen a person from Africa, Southeast Asia, or other distant world regions in the flesh.
It was through their possession of a bodily capital that was effective in the Israeli setting that many Latinos, rather than black sub-Saharan African or Asian undocumented migrants, became sensitive to the possibilities of a specific path toward assimilation.
In order to foster their phenotypical invisibility in Israel, many Latinos conformed their haircut, ornaments, and dress code to what they perceived to be the prevailing Israeli style. Realizing the benefits of semblance to their chances of survival in Israel, some Latinos invested in a more comprehensive cultural assimilation, paying increasing attention to cultural aspects of living in Israel. For example, many Latinos did their utmost to learn the Hebrew language; some of them regularly practiced it at work with their Israeli employers, while others invested their time and money in taking Hebrew courses. In public spaces, Latinos often chose to speak Hebrew, and at home they sometimes blended Hebrew words into their mother tongue. Some Latinos also practiced Israeli manners and typical gestures at home to embody, and achieve mastery in, what they perceived to be a distinctive Israeli cultural code of behavior and a display of bodily conduct. It became common among some Latinos to use the phrase "This is not how the Jews do it" in order to correct each other's behavior whenever it markedly deviated, according to their judgment, from the customary Israeli way. Latinos corrected one another, for example, about the "proper" Israeli way of making and serving coffee, carrying and offering cigarettes, or cracking and eating salted sunflower seeds. Although this corrective remark was always made in a joking manner, it was indicative of the importance that Latinos attributed to developing such mastery of Israeli cultural practices.
The settlement of Latinos, and other undocumented migrants, was facilitated by several dynamics in Israel. Firstly, consecutive Israeli governments unofficially adopted a blind-eye policy with respect to undocumented migrants. This was the case not least because these new sub-proletarians provided the Israeli economy with cheap, flexible, and disenfranchised labor. Moreover, policymakers who feared a permanent settlement of non-Jewish temporary migrant workers assumed that deportable undocumented migrants were less likely than ever to be able to claim formal recognition from the state. Secondly, an "implementation deficit" was evident in the execution of Israel's policies toward undocumented migrants. A number of officials and professionals who worked in semi-state- and state-sponsored institutions neither shared nor conformed to the objectives that were set forward by the official national policy. This was most obvious in the approaches and actions of physicians and head teachers, who had direct contact with undocumented migrants and whose professional ethics, based on universalistic and humanist values, prevailed over the measures that were stipulated in official policies. Thirdly, the selective democratic characteristics of Israel permitted civil society actors to contest and partly subvert repressive state policies against non-Jewish migrants. A number of Israeli nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), as well as some journalists and academics, supported undocumented migrants and offered them practical and legal assistance.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Latino Migrants in the Jewish State by Barak Kalir. Copyright © 2010 Barak Kalir. Excerpted by permission of Indiana University Press.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xi
1 Introduction: Undocumented Belonging 1
Part 1
2 Unsettling Setting: A Jewish State Dependent on Non-Jewish Labor 27
3 Destiny and Destination: Latinos Deciding to Leave for Israel 57
Part 2
4 Shifting Strategies: From the Accumulation of Money toward the Accumulation of Belonging 89
5 Divisive Dynamics: The Absence of Political Community and the Differentiations of the Recreational Scene 126
6 The Religious Forms of Undocumented Lives: Latino Evangelical Churches 156
Part 3
7 Israeli Resolution, Latino Disillusion: From Massive Deportation to Symbolic Legalization 203
8 Conclusion: A New Assimilation? 228
Notes 237
Bibliography 243
Index 257
What People are Saying About This
"A unique study of undocumented immigrants from Latin America living in Israel, this study brings a wealth of previously unknown data about the tribulations of a population viewed as problematic in much of the Western world. The special circumstances of the Israeli situation notwithstanding, the issues raised here are similar to ones challenging large parts of the world. After the first intifada in the late 1980s, Israel allowed for labor migration from other countries to perform economic roles considered undesirable by Israelis and previously filled by Arabs from the territories, who were now viewed as security risks. The Latinos in question were not legal labor migrants, but came on tourist visas, having learned about employment opportunities in Israel. Many brought over family and produced offspring locally, who were then privileged in status, in contrast with their parents. Anthropologist Kalir (Univ. of Amsterdam, Netherlands) explores the history, social conditions, and strategies employed in avoiding deportation and the successful acculturation of the children and broad acceptance by Israeli citizens. In the end, many were deported, but those who remained have created a fledgling community, contributing to the diversity of the nation. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. — Choice"
Lucid and persuasive . . . a fascinating case study of the tensions and strains of a state system seeking to define citizenship.
A unique study of undocumented immigrants from Latin America living in Israel, this study brings a wealth of previously unknown data about the tribulations of a population viewed as problematic in much of the Western world. The special circumstances of the Israeli situation notwithstanding, the issues raised here are similar to ones challenging large parts of the world. After the first intifada in the late 1980s, Israel allowed for labor migration from other countries to perform economic roles considered undesirable by Israelis and previously filled by Arabs from the territories, who were now viewed as security risks. The Latinos in question were not legal labor migrants, but came on tourist visas, having learned about employment opportunities in Israel. Many brought over family and produced offspring locally, who were then privileged in status, in contrast with their parents. Anthropologist Kalir (Univ. of Amsterdam, Netherlands) explores the history, social conditions, and strategies employed in avoiding deportation and the successful acculturation of the children and broad acceptance by Israeli citizens. In the end, many were deported, but those who remained have created a fledgling community, contributing to the diversity of the nation. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. — Choice
A unique study of undocumented immigrants from Latin America living in Israel, this study brings a wealth of previously unknown data about the tribulations of a population viewed as problematic in much of the Western world. The special circumstances of the Israeli situation notwithstanding, the issues raised here are similar to ones challenging large parts of the world. After the first intifada in the late 1980s, Israel allowed for labor migration from other countries to perform economic roles considered undesirable by Israelis and previously filled by Arabs from the territories, who were now viewed as security risks. The Latinos in question were not legal labor migrants, but came on tourist visas, having learned about employment opportunities in Israel. Many brought over family and produced offspring locally, who were then privileged in status, in contrast with their parents. Anthropologist Kalir (Univ. of Amsterdam, Netherlands) explores the history, social conditions, and strategies employed in avoiding deportation and the successful acculturation of the children and broad acceptance by Israeli citizens. In the end, many were deported, but those who remained have created a fledgling community, contributing to the diversity of the nation. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. — Choice
A sophisticated study of Latino immigration in Israel . . . [that] makes a contribution not just to the study of contemporary Israel, but to the study of migrant labor, citizenship, and migration in the contemporary world.