A new report by the Israeli Ministry of Labor puts the number of Israeli “yordim” (immigrants) in the United States and Canada at about 480,000, the highest ever official Israeli estimate.
The report, recently submitted to Labor and Welfare Minister Moshe Katzav by Consul Amos Haddad, head of the Labor Ministry Delegation in the United States, characterized the new estimate as “astonishing.” It said that the number was derived from information supplied by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) authorities and files from the Israeli consulates in the United States and Canada.
According to the report, in December 1986 alone about 70,000 Israelis were registered at INS, awaiting the immigrant status that includes the coveted “Green Card” that will allow them to work. The report noted that INS data show that from 1966-79, 96,000 Israelis received the status of immigrants, while 30,000 more were granted the same status between 1980-86.
The new estimate of 480,000 yordim includes the American-born children of the Israeli immigrants and Israelis who immigrated to the United States and Canada after living for many years in other countries, former Israeli students and academicians who came to study here and then remained, and “many Israelis who live in the United States illegally,” the report said.
The report claimed that about 50,000 Israeli immigrants are living in Canada in addition to “many” illegal Israelis.
‘INDICATE A TREND OF MASS MIGRATION’
“These numbers (on the yordim), although they might not be completely accurate, indicate a trend of mass migration of Israelis, among them tens of thousands of the best of Israeli youths– Israeli-born, kibbutzniks and Israeli ‘brains’– who cannot be replaced,” the report stated.
As for North American yordim who returned to live in Israel, the report noted that 2,109 who lived in the United States and Canada from two-11 years returned to Israel in 1986. “This is an increase of 17.5 percent compared to 1985, during which 1.776 Israelis returned to Israel from the United States and Canada,” the report stated. The yordim returned through the offices of the Labor Ministry Delegation in the United States, the report noted. The report also provided the findings of a 1986 survey among the yordim on their reasons for living abroad. The survey included 760 heads of Israeli families living in the United States and Canada, 562 of whom were academicians and 198 non-academicians. The reasons were: economic, quality of life in Israel, employment, Israeli bureaucratic red tape and educational opportunity. “None of the respondents cited Israel’s security problems as a cause for yerida,” the report stated.
The survey also found that about 60 percent of the Israelis who left Israel for America did so before 1980. About 33 percent left Israel between 1980-83 while 8 percent left in 1984. Information on the number of yordim after 1984 was not available.
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