ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the main contours of immigration patterns over time, their fluctuations and selectivity, and presents some of the population, ethnic, and nation-building issues. Israeli society has been shaped by immigration patterns, more than most other countries. Social, economic, cultural, and political developments in Israel, and the internal conflicts among Jews and between Arabs and Jews, are linked to the intensity of immigration and to the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of those migrating. The processes, patterns, and policies of immigration to the state of Israel have been unique. Immigration to Israel is special because of the sociocultural diversity of the immigrants, their overwhelming importance in the formation and development of Israeli society, and the concentration of immigration in the first three years after the establishment of the state and in the early 1990s. The chapter explores whether convergences in some demographic characteristics result in the declining significance of ethnicity and ethnic communities in social behavior.
