Jewish Russian Immigrants in the US

and around the world. Health Needs. Part 1: Immigration history

Olga Greg and the Supercourse teamUniversity of Pittsburgh

Some definitions: Immigrant - a person who migrates to another

country, usually for permanent residence.

Migrant - a person that moves from one region, place, or country to another.

Refugee - a person who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecution; somebody seeking safe place.

Causes for Jewish Migration: similarities to other migration waves Economic Demographic Political Religious freedom

Learning objectives

This lecture will explore the psychological and social factors affecting Jewish immigrants use of health services, and address implications for social workers and health care professionals, concluding that the educational process needs to be directed to immigrants when they are first introduced to US health and social institutions

American Immigration History

Four immigration periods important for this lecture: the colonial period (During the 17th century,

approximately 175,000 Englishmen migrated to Colonial America, about 400,000—crossed the Atlantic during the 17th and 18th centuries)

the mid-19th century (Northern Europe) the start of the 20th century (From 1836 to 1914,

over 30 million Europeans migrated to the US, mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe)

post-1965 (Latin America and Asia).

Peak of Immigration

The peak year of European immigration was in 1907, when 1,285,349 persons entered the country.* By 1910, 13.5 million immigrants were living in the United States.** In 1921, the Congress passed the Emergency Quota, followed by the Immigration Act of 1924. The 1924 Act was aimed at further restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans, especially Jews, Italians, and Slavs, who had begun to enter the country in large numbers beginning in the 1890s.

Russian Immigrant Family 1918

Jacob Mithelstadt and his family from Russia at Ellis Island in 1905

Ashkenazic Jews: Ashkenazic Jews are the Jews of France, Germany,

and Eastern Europe and their descendants. The adjective "Ashkenazic" is derived from the

Hebrew word "Ashkenaz," which is used to refer to Germany.

Most American Jews today are Ashkenazim, descended from Jews who emigrated from Germany and Eastern Europe from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s.

The Yiddish language, which many people think of as the international language of Judaism, is really the language of Ashkenazic Jews.

Sephardic Jews: Sephardic Jews are the Jews of Spain, Portugal,

North Africa and the Middle East and their descendants.

The adjective "Sephardic" is derived from the Hebrew word "Sepharad," which refers to Spain.

Most of the early Jewish settlers of North America were Sephardic.

Sephardic Jews have their own international language: Ladino, which was based on Spanish and Hebrew in the same way that Yiddish was based on German and Hebrew.

Modern Immigration

After ethnic quotas on immigration were removed in 1965 the number of actual (first-generation) immigrants living in the United States eventually quadrupled, from 9.6 million in 1970 to about 38 million in 2007*. Over one million persons were naturalized** as U.S. citizens in 2008. The leading countries of origin of immigrants to the United States were Mexico, India, the Philippines, and China.[5] Nearly 14 million immigrants entered the United States from 2000 to 2010. Family reunification accounts for approximately two-thirds of legal immigration to the US every year.

Immigrants who have been in the United States for 20 years are much more likely to

live in poverty; lack health insurance; access the welfare system more often than

native-born Americans.

The large share of immigrants arriving as adults with relatively little education partly explains this phenomenon.

Modern Immigration general numbers: The number of immigrants (legal and illegal) in the

country hit a new record of 40 million in 2010, a 28 percent increase over the total in 2000.

Of top sending countries, the largest percentage increase in the last decade was for those from Honduras (85 percent), India (74 percent), Guatemala (73 percent), Peru (54 percent), El Salvador (49 percent), Ecuador (48 percent), and China (43 percent).

Labor Force: In March of 2011, the share of working-age (18 to 65) immigrants

holding a job was the same as natives — 68 percent. Immigrant men have higher rates of work than native-born men, while immigrant women have lower rates.

While immigrants tend to be concentrated in certain jobs, natives comprise the majority of workers in virtually every occupational category. For example, natives comprise 52 percent of maids, 73 percent of janitors, 66 percent of construction laborers, and 65 percent of butchers and meat processors.

More than one-quarter of physicians and surgeons (27 percent) were foreign born, as were more than one out of every five (22 percent) persons working in health care support jobs as nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides.

Poverty: In 2010, 23 percent of immigrants and their U.S.-born children

(under 18) lived in poverty, compared to 13.5 percent of natives and their children. Immigrants and their children accounted for one-fourth of all persons in poverty.

The children of immigrants account for one-third of all children in poverty.

Among the top sending countries, poverty is highest for immigrants and their young children from Mexico (35 percent), Honduras (34 percent), and Guatemala (31 percent); and lowest for those from Germany (7 percent), India (6 percent), and the Philippines (6 percent).

Entrepreneurship:

Immigrants and natives have very similar rates of entrepreneurship — 11.7 percent of natives and 11.5 percent of immigrants are self-employed.

Among the top sending countries, self-employment is highest for immigrants from Korea (26 percent), Canada (24 percent), and the United Kingdom (17 percent). It is lowest for those from Haiti (6 percent), Honduras (5 percent), and Jamaica (3 percent).

Education: Of adult immigrants (25 to 65), 28 percent have not completed

high school, compared to 7 percent of natives.

The share of immigrants (25 to 65) with at least a bachelor’s degree is somewhat lower than that of natives — 29 vs. 33 percent.

The large share of immigrants with relatively little education is one of the primary reasons for their lower socioeconomic status, not their legal status or an unwillingness to work.

At the same time immigration added significantly to the number of less-educated workers, the share of young, less-educated natives holding a job declined significantly. The decline began well before the current economic downturn.

Jewish Immigration from Russia1850-1910

Survival Advantage among Jewish People in the US over

Russia. Several published studies pointed out

survival advantage of Jewish people in the US over Russia. Some of the potential reasons for survival advantage include: higher education, lower level of alcohol abuse, and adherence to Jewish Dietary Laws (Kashrut)

Ellis Island Health Exams While admission decisions were made by the

Immigration Service, the law required medical inspection of immigrants by the United States Public Health Service (PHS). When a PHS medical officer formally diagnosed an immigrant with a disease or defect, throwing his or her admissibility into question, that individual was considered "medically certified." The law required the PHS to issue a medical certificate to those who suffered from a "loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease“*. Exclusion of those diagnosed with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, venereal disease, trachoma, and favus was mandatory.

Awaiting examination, Ellis Island

Definition of "Jews" from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) *

1. whose religion is Jewish, OR

2. who has no religion and has at least one Jewish parent or a Jewish upbringing, OR

3. who has a non-monotheistic religion, and has at least one Jewish parent or a Jewish upbringing

Russian Jews Before and After Czars Under the Czars, Jews had been mostly restricted to the so-

called Pale of Settlement in the far west, and along China border.

The Jewish autonomous region experienced modest growth and development through the mid 1930s. Its nearly 18,000 Jews then constituted 16% of the total population. The region’s current government boasts that Jewish settlers were enticed to migrate from “Argentina, Lithuania, France, Latvia, Germany, Belgium, the USA, Poland and even from Palestine.” Yiddish schools, publishing firms, and other institutions were established.

The Jewish Autonomous Region itself survived both the demise of Stalin and the end of the Soviet Union. Today it is one of Russia’s 83 federal subjects, and its only autonomous oblast. The Jewish population, however, is no longer significant, numbering between 2,000 and 4,000

Jewish Immigration HistoryThe history of the Jews in the United States has been part of the

American national fabric since colonial times. Until the 1830s the Jewish community of Charleston, South

Carolina was the most numerous in North America. With the large scale immigration of Jews from diaspora communities in Germany in the 19th century, they established themselves in many small towns and cities.

A much larger immigration of Eastern Ashkenazi Jews, 1880–1914, brought a large, poor, traditional element to New York City Refugees arrived from diaspora communities in Europe after World War II, and many arrived from the Soviet Union after 1970.

In 1989, the U.S. Congress passed the Lautenberg Amendment classifying Soviet Jews and certain other religious communities as persecuted groups, automatically qualifying them for refugee status.  Over the next decade, a huge wave of new Russian-Jewish immigrants headed to American shores

Soviet hostility toward Jews followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to millions of Soviet Jews leaving to seek refuge elsewhere.  Over a million of them settled in Israel, hundreds of thousands emigrated to European countries—primarily Germany—and others landed in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.  

Population

In the 1940s Jews comprised 3.7% of the national population.Today the population is about 5 million—under 2% of the national

total in the US.The largest population centers in 2011 are the states of: New York - 1,635,020 California – 1,219,740 Florida – 638,635 New Jersey – 504,450 Illinois – 297,935 Pennsylvania – 294,925 and Massachusetts – 277,980

Summary report of the Jewish population in the United States

Russian speakers make up 10% of the American Jewish community, but no one is entirely sure how many Russian-speaking Jewish people there are in the United States. Estimates for this number fluctuated from as high as 750,000 people to fewer than 500,000

“By any account, the number of Russian-speaking Jews in the United States now probably exceeds those of Russia and Ukraine combined,” states Kliger, a sociologist who is director of Russian community affairs at AJC. “New York today is populated by more Russian Jews than any other place in the world.”

About 50% of the Former Soviet Union immigrants live in New York City; there are large communities in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles.

The Department of Justice does not keep data on the religious affiliation of immigrants. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society settled most Jews who came directly from the FSU. Mark Hetfield, HIAS senior vice president for policy and programs, said that since 1970, the agency resettled 410,000 people, mostly Jews.

There is a question of how many of those Russian speakers should be counted as Jewish, particularly when many non-Jewish immigrants came as members of families that include Jews.

The numbers are particularly important for the Russian-speaking community because it is such a large demographic group — estimates range from about 6% to 12% of American Jewry — and because it has needs that are distinct from the wider American Jewish community.

Migration

Russian Jews

More likely to be members of a Jewish community than of a synagogue

Have stronger bond to Israel that an average American Jew

Have relatives in Israel Only 70% are “real” Jews according to Israel’s Law

of Return* Other 30% are non-Jews who belong to Jewish

household or more distantly related Most do not speak Hebrew

Social structure Compared with other major immigrant

populations, Russians are generally older – 83% are age 50 or older

About 35% have a college degree Russians hold professional positions as

physicians, engineers, and teachers. Many encounter difficulties pursuing careers

in the U.S. due to certification or licensing requirements.

The most recent arrivals to the U.S. tend to be less educated than earlier immigrants. They are often employed in manufacturing, trade, and service industries, and many have launched successful businesses.

Native Russian language is usually spoken at home. Only the oldest generation of Russian Jews can still understand and speak Hebrew, however they do not use it to communicate with there family or friends.