Nine thousand seven hundred immigration certificates for the next six months were granted today by the Palestine government to the Jewish Agency for Palestine. The executive of the Jewish Agency originally had asked for 18,600 immigration certificates as the minimum necessary for current labor demands.
Of the 9,700, the Jewish Agency will receive only 7,500, since 2,200 are to be deducted to offset the number of tourists who settled permanently in Palestine and the administration’s estimate of the number of Jews who entered the country illegally.
In a statement announcing receipt of the immigration schedules, officials of the Jewish Agency stated that although they had received a larger number than ever before, the total amount still does not satisfy the minimum needs of the labor shortage, which has existed for the past two years.
“We shall continue our efforts to increase appreciably the immigration of Jewish workers to Palestine,” the Jewish Agency statement declared.
Recent economic expansion has created an unprecedented demand for workers, while the supply of labor has lagged progressively. This has led to a concentration in better-paid jobs, particularly the ###ing building trade, and neglect of other fields which are left without an adequate supply of labor. Jewish labor has shifted from the villages to the towns and from agriculture to industry. Shortage of Jewish agricultural labor has been aggravated by the tendency of wage earners to turn to independent farming. With each new immigration schedule the shortage of Jewish workers has grown.
The following table shows the immigration schedules requested and the number actually granted by the government:
Asked Granted
October, 1931 1,721 350
April, 1932 3,720 2,000
October, 1932 6,760 4,500
April, 1933 12,750 5,500
October, 1933 24,490 5,500
April, 1934 20,100 5,500
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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.
