PATTERNS OF IDENTIFICATION AND INTEGRATION WITH JEWISH AMERICANS AMONG ISRAELI IMMIGRANTS IN CHICAGO: VARIATIONS ACROSS STATUS AND GENERATION.

In the article the author focuses on patterns of identification and integration with Jewish American ethnic community among Israeli immigrants in Chicago, Illinois and studies the variation across status and generation. Fieldwork, including in-depth interviews with Israeli immigrants and their children and participant observation, indicates that lower status Israeli immigrants seek to identify with Jewish Americans and to integrate into the Jewish American community. In this regard, they differ from both their higher status counterparts and the second generation offspring of both status groups who reject such identification and integration. The study suggests that identification with the proximal host group is determined by both the immigrants' socio-economic background in the sending society and by the social status that they would acquire in the host society by identifying with their proximal host group. Specifically, when newcomer immigrants perceive their identification with the proximal host group as entailing an improvement in their social status, they will be inclined to accept such identification. The likelihood of immigrants identifying with the proximal-host group is also related to the social status of the latter in the host country.