ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the "honeymoon," the curiosity, and the feelers extended for closer relations between Israelis and new immigrants as the mass wave of immigration began were short-lived. In addition, absorption policy gradually eroded the distinctive privileges and services which had been available to all immigrants. The sector that is young, has little education and a low income, and is of African-Asian descent sharply rejects immigration absorption as a preferential national goal, stresses its adverse effect on the economy, and spurns personal involvement to assist new immigrants. In the Oriental communities 59 percent thought that the conditions being provided to the new immigrants from Russia were more than the state could afford, against 40 percent holding this opinion among those of European origin. An examination of the Israeli public's attitude toward the new immigrants of the 1990s, as seen in the findings of the various studies and surveys conducted until 1992.
