ABSTRACT
The geo-cultural differences among Soviet Jews are relevant to immigrant resettlement not only because those from one region will differ in their values and Jewish consciousness from immigrants from another area. Geo-cultural variations influence the values and expectations of immigrants and are therefore relevant to resettlement. The immigrants will resist attempts to get them to "cooperate," to associate with and help people with whom they feel they have little in common. The immigrants are, naturally, concentrated in the lower income groups. The personnel of the agencies dealing with the immigrants in America are mainly social workers and guidance and vocational counsellors, rather than civil servants with no specific vocational training, as is the case in Israel. The immigrants naturally transfer Soviet ways of dealing with bureaucracies and bureaucrats, and their confrontationist style quickly alienates--or at least puzzles--the American social worker.
