The effect of minority/majority origins on immigrants' integration

This paper develops an inexplicably understudied variable with far-reaching implications for immigrants' experience: whether an immigrant was a member of a minority group in his or her country of origin. I investigate three groups of Israeli-born immigrants in the United States: Israeli Palestinians, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and the Jewish majority. Using the US censuses and American Community Surveys, I show that each group possesses different socioeconomic and demographic characteristics as well as different cultural and economic trajectories. Ultra-Orthodox Jews display processes of separation; the Jewish majority displays processes of integration; and Israeli Palestinians display processes of accelerated integration. In addition, analysis of these three groups' background and self-selection mechanisms, utilizing data from the Israeli Social Survey, provides a better understanding of these profound differences.