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World Jewish News
Crisis Forces CIS Residents Consider Moving to Israel
26.02.2009
The number of repatriates increases.
Most often those known as "middle class" ask for the information on emigration. Middle-aged people, who until recently were rather well-off, are willing to start their lives from scratch in a new country.
The end of mass emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union in the early 1990's made Israel get used to the idea that FSU repatriation has almost petered out. However, according to the Israeli Ministry of Absorption and the JAFI National Agency for Repatriation, more than 30 thousand new citizens, as well as Israelis who had left the country before, will arrive in Israel in 2009. Experts attribute this directly to the current economic crisis.
Ukrainians at the forefront.
According to official statistics, the number of immigrants arriving in Israel decreased by 16 percent in 2008 when compared with the 2007, and comprised only 16,5 thousand people. However, due to inflation, lack of confidence in the future, as caused by the economic crisis, fear of unemployment and poverty, people start to think about moving.
As the JAFI official representative Alex Selsky told in his interview to Deutsche Welle, among the CIS countries such sentiments are particularly felt in Ukraine. According to him, in several countries around the world, especially in Ukraine, Argentina and South Africa, there has been an increase in the number of requests to the Agency's information centers. People are interested in moving, and are even beginning to process documents.
Russians are looking for options
In Russia after the default of 1998, the number of immigrants increased twice. And now, as people at JAFI admit, many wishing to move abroad for permanent residence have been slow to get plane tickets, turning at the same time to several embassies, choosing the best option for them.
"I cannot estimate the number of citizens of Russia or Ukraine who asked for information on emigration to other countries. I am sure that Germany, the USA and Canada are the countries where the mainstream leads," Selsky believes.
However, after Germany tightened admission rules of ethnic Germans and Jews from the former Soviet Union, the number of immigrants to West Germany began to decline sharply. Thus, according to the Federal Office for Migrants and Refugees, in 2007, 2502 Jews and their family members from the former Soviet republics moved to Germany, last year there were only 1436 of them.
On the wave of emigration
Notably, the interest in moving to Israel now is shown by the citizens of those countries which, until recently, had been considered bastions of economic stability and prosperity, such as the UK. Because of the progressive recession and the difficult situation on labor market, the telephones in the London office of JAFI have gone red, said the Agency representative Rafi Nasi.
As Nasi says, in recent months, the number of open immigration cases has increased by 20 percent. This does not mean that all of these people intend to emigrate, but indicates that more and more families are considering options of moving to Israel.
Tax relief
According to Nasi, most often those known as "middle class" ask for information on repatriation. Middle-aged people, until recently rather well-off, are willing to start their lives from scratch in a new country. A woman from London, Claire Bloom, a real estate agent, lost her job with the beginning of the financial crisis, and she decided to move.
"When I was last in Israel, I was asked about life in London. The financial crisis was just beginning, and I thought to myself, if it is not working out for me in the UK, I must make a decision. Now or never!," says Claire Bloom.
In order to return its citizens to the country, Israel’s authorities decided to release them for 10 years from taxes on income earned abroad. This privilege may be interesting for those who had left the country and created their own businesses outside Israel.
Dimitri Kanevsky
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