The Absorption Ministry has estimated that four percent of the Russian immigrants arriving in Israel have decided to re-emigrate to other countries, compared to eight percent of all other immigrants who have decided to leave.
These and other figures dealing with Soviet Jewish emigres were reported in the newspaper Maariv. The time period to which the figures pertained was not made clear. According to the Absorption Ministry, some fifty requests a month are filed by Russian Jews seeking to leave Israel. Another apparently less official estimate, reported by Maariv, put the number of Russian immigrants leaving Israel at 1200 yearly. Close to 50,000 Russian immigrants arrived in Israel in the last two years, 16,000 in 1971, and 32,000 last year. The same rate of Soviet aliya has been maintained during the first quarter of 1973.
Aharon Amit, director of absorption services for the Absorption Ministry conceded in the Maariv story that the number of Russian immigrants planning to leave Israel is on the increase, largely because of an over saturated economy where many Russian skills are not saleable.
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