Immigrants in the city: from exploration to domestication

Abstract

This essay looks at immigrants’ integration into the economic and cultural life of Haifa, one of the largest Russian-speaking urban enclaves. Based on participant observation and auto-ethnography, it reflects on visual and acoustic signs of the ‘Russian’ presence. It further analyzes factors determining the newcomers’ choices of neighbourhood and subsequent intra-city migration. Immigrant-owned businesses catering to consumer tastes of ex-Soviets have become the meeting points of various ethnic groups inhabiting the city. Over time, educational institutions created by immigrant teachers and centres providing intellectual enrichment have switched to bilingual activities to meet the changing needs of co-ethnics and to attract a wider public, but the underlying pedagogical principles and cultural values behind them remain Russian.

Keywords:

• auto-ethnography
• Israel
• immigrants
• urban life
• public/private spaces

Notes

 1. Maria Yelenevskaya and Larisa Fialkova, “When Time and Space Are No Longer the Same: Stories about Immigration,” Studia Mythologica Slavica 5 (2002): 207–30; Maria Yelenevskaya and Larisa Fialkova, “Between Dream Cities and Reality: Personal Narratives of ex-Soviets in Israel,” Applied Research of Quality of Life 1, no.1 (2006): 189–209, http://www.springerlink.com/content/8710n48n62003w87/.

 2. Tamar Horowitz, “The Integration of Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union,” Israeli Affairs 11, no. 1 (2005): 122; Eliezer Feldman, “Russian” Israel: Between the Two Poles [in Russian] (Moscow: Market DS, 2003), 50–51.

 3. Tamar Horowitz, Shmuel Shamai, and Zinaida Ilatov, Assimilation, Dialogue and Empowerment: Immigrants and Non-Immigrants in Katzrin [in Hebrew] (Ramot: Tel Aviv University, 2003); Nelly Elias and Natalia Khvorostianova, “Russian Cultural Institutions in Beer-Sheba: Building a Community,” Sociological Papers 12 (2007): 47–61.

 4. Smadar Amir and Naomi Carmon, New Immigrants in the Old Center: A Temporary Station or a Renovation of the Town. A Survey of Hadar Ha-Carmel in Haifa [in Hebrew] (Haifa: University of Haifa Press, 1993).

 5. Carolyn Ellis and Arthur Bochner, “Auto-ethnography, Personal Narrative, Reflexivity,” in Handbook of Qualitative Research, ed. Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000), 739.

 6. N.L. Holt, “Representation, Legitimation, and Auto-ethnography: An Autoethnographic Writing Story,” International Journal of Qualitative Methods 2, no.1 (2003): 2.

 7. D.J. Walmsley, Urban Living: The Individual in the City (Harlow: Longman Scientific & Technical, 2007), 52.

 8. Richard Stites, “Crowded on the Edge of Vastness: Observations on Russian Space and Place,” in Beyond the Limits: The Concept of Space in Russian History and Culture, ed. Jeremy Smith (Helsinki: University of Helsinki Press, 1999), 259–69; Artyom Kosmarskii, “Muscovite in Tashkent or an Experience in Familiarization with an ‘Oriental’ City: Power, Daily Routine, and the Sacred,” Acta Eurasica 1, no. 35 (2007): 27-61 [in Russian].

 9. We are grateful to Viktoria Leifman for interesting comments and observations.

10. Larisa Fialkova and Maria Yelenevskaya, Ex-Soviets in Israel: From Personal Narratives to a Group Portrait (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2007), 227–31.

11. Majid Al-Hadj and Elazar Leshem, Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel: Ten Years Later (Haifa: University of Haifa Press, 2000, Hebrew), 39.

12. Noga Dagan-Buzaglo and Shlomo Svirski, The System of Education: Selectivity, Inequality and Weakening Control [in Hebrew], December 15, 2009, http://www.adva.org/default.asp?pageid = 1001&itmid = 567#

13. Eliezer Feldman, “‘Russian’ Teenagers in Israel,” in The “Russian” Face of Israel: Features of the Social Portrait, ed. Moshe Kenigshtein [in Russian] (Jerusalem: Gesharim, 2007), 343–80.

14. Ronald Briggs, “Urban Cognitive Distance,” in Image and Environment: Cognitive Mapping and Spatial Behavior, ed. Roger M. Downs and David Stea (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973), 365–67.

15. Larisa Fialkova, “Russian Language on the Israeli Market,” Rusistika segodnia 1–2 (1999): 80–89 [in Russian].

16. According to the poll conducted by the popular Israeli-Russian Internet portal http://www.zahav.ru, about 70% of the respondents said that they always celebrated the New Year; 20% celebrated it sometimes; 7.5% did not celebrate it due to the lack of festive atmosphere and only 2.5% did not celebrate it as there is no such holiday in Judaism. The total number of respondents was 3178, http://polls.zahav.ru/?inter = 1 (accessed December 29, 2009).

17. The information leaflet on this event is entitled “With a Book Below the Fir Tree. A New-Year Russian Book Fare and Other Gifts from the Grand Shopping Mall” (December 25, 2009).

18. See detailed discussion in Larissa Remennick, “Survival of the Fittest: Russian Immigrant Teachers Speak about their Professional Adjustment in Israel,” International Migration 40, no. 1 (2002): 99–121. See also Tamar Horowitz et al., “The Russian Immigrant Community vs. The Israeli Educational Establishment: From Extra-Curricular Activities to Systematic Change,” in Studies in Language and Language Education: Essays in Honor of Elite Olstain, ed. Anat Stavans and Irit Kupferberg [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, School of Education, 2008), 394.

19. Roger Hart, Children's Experience of Place (New York: Free Press, 1979), 323–33.

20. Today, this community centre is called Beiteinu (Hebrew for ‘Our House’). It has lost its significance as the centre of Russian cultural life but is still used for lectures and houses various hobby groups.

21. Narspi (Nataly) Zilberg, “Symbolic Community: The Secular Cultural Codes and Rituals of “Russian” Immigrants in Israel,” in Israel through “Russian” Eyes: Identities and Cultures, ed. Elena Nosenko [in Russian] (Moscow: NATALIS Press, 2008), 294–300.

22. Interview with the head of the museum, V. Orlenko.

23. Detailed information about activities of the centre can be found on its website in Russian, http://www.moshiach.ru/ (accessed December 29, 2009).

24. http://merkazmagen.org/pub/index.php (accessed December 20, 2009). The website of Magen is regularly updated and contains comprehensive information about its purposes, underlying principles, political orientation and projects. There are articles about the founders of the centre and its activists, as well as links to the poetry written by its members.

25. A chapter of the novel Jerusalem by a Russian-speaking Israeli writer Denis Sobolev, addresses the importance of role games in the life of immigrant youth. See Denis Sobolev, Ierusalim [in Russian] (Rostov-on-Don: Fenix, 2005), 306–71.

26. It can be also seen on the pictures of one of Magen's meetings: http://www.jerusalem-korczak-home.com/jek/09/02-19/mag.html (accessed January 11, 2010).

27. Larissa Remennick, Russian Jews on Three Continents: Identity, Integration, and Conflict (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2007), 73–80.

28. Victor Moin et al., “Ethnically Mixed Russian-Speaking Families in Israel: Problems of Adaptation,” in The “Russian” Face of Israel: Features of the Social Portrait, ed. Moshe Kenigshtein [in Russian] (Jerusalem: Gesharim, 2007), 205.

29. Zvi Gitelman, “Jews and ‘Affiliated’ non-Jews in and from the Former Soviet Union,” in Israel through “Russian” Eyes, ed. Nosenko, 204.

30. Elena Nosenko-Stein, “Others among Others: Does the Jewish Christian-Orthodox Identity Exist at All?,” Ethnographic Review no. 3 (2009): 20-35 [in Russian].