The Ebbing of the Flood of Soviet Jewish Immigrants into Israel

By Frank Collins

The liberalized Soviet government, before the failed coup, had already granted the right to all Soviet citizens to obtain passports, providing emigrating Soviet Jews the choice of destinations other than Israel. The effect was a sudden drop in the immigration rate to Israel commencing July 1, the day when the new law went into effect. The immigration rate in August receded still further to 7,000 from the 9,000 in July.

At first, Israeli authorities ascribed the sudden drop in immigration to delays in the issuance of passports by the Soviet government. Israeli authorities now admit that the collapse in immigration is not due to Soviet bureaucratic sloth, but rather to reports of mass Soviet Jewish unemployment in Israel, now running over 80 percent. Having been given the choice of destination, Soviet Jews are planning to go to countries other than Israel, even though it may take longer to make arrangements.

Meanwhile, discontent is widespread among Soviet Jews already in Israel. Crowds are besieging the Soviet consulate in Tel Aviv seeking the Soviet passports to which they are rightfully entitled under the new Soviet law.

The right-wing coup in the Soviet Union, its stunning defeat, and the acceleration of democratization make the future of Soviet Jewish immigration to Israel very difficult to predict. There is substantial question not only about the magnitude of future immigration to Israel, but also about how many of the Soviet Jews presently in Israel will remain there. The right of return of Soviet Jews in Israel to the Soviet Union at present is substantially infringed by bureaucratic delays in issuing Soviet passports at the Soviet consulate in Tel Aviv.

Frustrated by the prospect of delays of up to a year in the processing of their applications for Soviet passports, a number of the Soviet Jews are applying instead for Israeli passports that will also enable them to leave Israel and travel anywhere. A total of 6,000 recent immigrants have received Israeli passports in the last six months. Of these, 86 percent had arrived in Israel in the last year, according to a report in Israel Shelanu of August 16th, quoting a spokesperson from the Israeli Ministry of the Interior.

The number of Soviet Jews actually leaving on Israeli passports is probably only the tip of the iceberg in the community of Soviet Jews who would like to leave, but do not qualify for Israeli passports. The Israeli government will not issue passports to Soviet Jews who still owe money to the Jewish Agency for their original transportation to Israel. Due to high unemployment, most Soviet Jews are miserably poor and quite unable to pay off the debts they incurred while getting established in Israel.

High unemployment among the Soviet Jewish immigrants also affects native and long-term citizens of Israel, particularly the young professionals who must now compete for secure positions with thousands of newly arrived Soviet Jews, most of whom have professional skills. Although daily totals are issued by the authorities for the arrival of the Soviet Jewish immigrants, figures for departing Israeli emigrants are not easily available. By all accounts they are large.

Relevant Uncertainties

These uncertainties are highly relevant to Israel's urgent lobbying in Congress for a first $2 billion of a requested total of $10 billion in loan guarantees. These guarantees have been requested to enable Israel to borrow money at preferred interest rates to build housing for Soviet Jews.

In view of the great uncertainties of future Soviet Jewish immigration and even of the number of Soviet Jews who will remain in Israel given the opportunity to leave, Congress would be well advised to go slowly in committing the US government to $10 billion in loan guarantees. It is entirely possible that the one million Soviet immigrants predicted by Israeli leaders will never materialize.

Once the loan guarantees are written into law, however, Israel will have sole discretion on how the money is spent. Already, the Israeli government has decided, according to the Washington Jewish Week of August 22, 1991, "Only 20 to 25 percent will go into housing for the immigrants; 30 to 35 percent will go into job creation, for the most part to private sector entrepreneurs; and 30 to 35 percent will go to `infrastructure' highways, water lines, municipal sewage systems and telephone lines…"

Under these circumstances, and in a climate of severe economic distress at home, members of Congress must anticipate being asked by their constituents why it would not make better sense to use available US funding for existing American needs, rather than providing it for Soviet Jews who may never arrive in Israel.

Frank Collins is a freelance journalist specializing in the Middle East.