ABSTRACT
Despite their social suspension in the temporary setting of the transit camp, immigrants were fundamentally concerned with the future: where they would live, what work they would do, what housekeeping would be like in Israel, how comfortably they would be able to live on their salaries, how and where their children would be educated. In the midst of the strain of the transit camp situation, many of these problems may have seemed remote; however, the transit camp was never viewed as a permanent place of settlement, and both the authorities and the immigrants were concerned with the future. This chapter focuses on the factors leading immigrants to choose an occupation. The effect of the immigrant's commitment to Zionism is examined for its role in conditioning occupational aspirations. In a time of widespread unemployment when most immigrants have not entered the occupational system of the host society, one way to study the problem of occupational choice is to determine occupational aspirations.
