ABSTRACT
This chapter represents a report of the first stage of the broader study, focusing on the earliest stage of immigrant adjustment in the transit camps. It introduces comparative data from the sample of old-timers. The questionnaire covered six major topics: occupational problems, social relations in the transit camp, morale, attitude toward the host society, acculturation, and level of information about Israel. Our population was not entirely comparable with the total immigrant population which arrived in 1949 and 1950 since the field work did not cover the entire two-year period. Furthermore, some of the immigrants who arrived during these years were no longer, or had never been, transit camp residents. The population depended on which groups arrived during the months the field work was carried out. In this respect there were considerable ethnic variations from month to month. It is, therefore, not entirely meaningful to compare our sample population with the statistics provided by Sicron on immigration during 1949 and 1950.
