A “test period” for new immigrants who wish to settle on the land, plus some concessions, will be attempted in an effort to induce a larger number of new immigrants to join agricultural settlements, it was announced here today.
The settlement of new immigrants on the land is a serious problem which has not yet been solved. Most of the new arrivals gravitate toward the already overcrowded urban areas and only a little more than five percent of the 250,000 new immigrants have elected to join agricultural settlements. One of the main difficulties standing in the way of new immigrants who wished to join collective settlements was that in joining they lost their. “repatriates’ rights,” granted to them by the Jewish Agency.
As the result of an agreement between the Agency and the collective settlements, this obstacle has now been overcome. Those who are willing to try living and working in a collective settlement may do so for one year without losing any of the priority rights due to them as new immigrants. These rights concern housing and financial grants for the establishment of individual enterprises. Prior to the agreement, immigrants entering agricultural settlements lost these rights.
At the same time, the new immigrants will enjoy all the rights of regular members of Kibbutz settlements during their test period, including two weeks’ annual leave. They will not, however, have voting privileges in the settlements. If, at the end of the year, the immigrants want to leave the settlement, they will be outfitted with clothes and given a bed and blankets, but they will not receive any wages or any money grant. The Jewish Agency, on the other hand, will discontinue its financial assistance to the settlements for the absorption of new immigrants.
The collective settlements, which have prided themselves on their “no hired labor” policy, have slightly altered their attitudes, but they still feel that the cost of the absorption of new immigrants in a settlement is greater than the value of the additional labor output. On the other hand, others believe that the current manpower shortage is such that in the majority of cases the additional agricultural workers will represent considerable profit for the settlements.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
