Why are Russian immigrants failing to integrate?

Question

Russian immigrants are failing to integrate, prefer to live in their own ghettos, read Russian newspapers, watch Russian television, and shop at their own shops.

Why is that?

Answer 1

Here in the US some are involved in criminal activities and some of them are illegal aliens. If Israel is having problems with Russian immigrants it may be for the same reasons.

Answer 2

Because they have their eye on the prize.

They have no interest in integration in ersatz israel because they don't want to stay their.  They are seeking to move to the US ASAP.

Answer 3

There are no ghettos in Israel, not Russian or of any other kind, how good is your russian ??

Answer 4

Israel is colony that is made up of many ethnic groups and backgrounds. Each group keep their native language and culture.

Answer 5

They are integrating.

I don't think it is an accurate statement to say that Russians have failed to integrate.  Don't be unfair to them.

Israel has absorbed alot of refugees from outlying countries it is more a success story than a failure for Israel or any particular group in general, including the Russians.

It takes time to fully assimilate into a culture and Russians are one of the newest immigrants so allot them their time like everyone else has.

One of the good things about Israel is the diversity that Jewish diaspora brought back with them.

Yemeni women brought beautiful clothing, and Spanish Jews brought special language and additional wonderful traditions.

Enjoy it instead of calling it a failure.

This insult is more of how other people view them than of how Jewish people view their own.  Leave them alone already.  You guys pick on everyone that is different than you but we don't do that so be nice if you can find it humanly possible.

Edit:  Aye, now they attacking Sephardim in same question even. Lolla, I am Sephardita so don't tell me how I should feel and talk bad about me.  It just shows your personal hatred not working with Ashkenazi so you then go to try attack Sephardi.  You get ulcer eventually when you harbor that hatred.

Answer 6

This indeed is a strange phenomena.  I see it all over the world.  h**l I'm one of them I guess.

I have been here three years and still I don't speak either Tagalog or Cebuano.  I read the paper in English.

a lot of my Chicano friends back home are like that.  They live in their own neighborhoods, eat Mexican food all the time and go to Latino movies and dances and my God the music.

Strange way of living HUH?

Answer 7

Russians come with a great deal of culture--why waste it? Israel is blessed by having a multi-cultural society, unlike the Palestinians who are monolithic. Palestinians are also monolithic in their thinking--because in their society, if you don't conform you are shunned and don't get zakat or assistance from your clan. Almost every Russian immigrant speaks Hebrew, but there is no reason why he/she should not speak to his/her friends in Russian, whereas if they spoke to their friends in Hebrew in the F.S.U., they'd be arrested. Israel is a free society where people are allowed to express themselves as and in whichever way they wish.

Answer 8

Well, integration is a big thing in any country. The way gov. put it. Here in Toronto we have little India, Little Italy, in the North Little Iran, China Town, and also a whole street where Jews live and have their businesses. The point being some people like to stay with their own. Maybe they miss home, or just feel they have something in common being with each other perhaps. I kind of like it. On any given day you can travel to any country you want, eat the food, see the culture, without even leaving your own city. Cheers!

Answer 9

I think that any area that has large community of immigrants behave  the same. I live in San Diego and we have large community of Hispanic population as well as people of Asian origin and they prefer to "stick together". I'm Czech and unfortunately there is not huge Czech community here, but I can see how people that speak same language, have same culture background and  same thinking tend to live close to each other.

Just imagine imagine yourself living in foreign country..you would probably seek out English speaking community as well as read English magazines.

Hope this helps

Answer 10

It really depends on their age and when they immigrate.

The ones who came to Israel in their 40s and beyond find it more difficult to assimilate into Israeli culture, whereas ones who immigrate at a younger age find it effortless.

The same rule applies to all immigrants.

I know this because I teach mostly immigrants, and I have observed them and their parents.

Having been a student in Israel, I have interacted with teens who came from Russia.  They were Israelis in every sense of the word, but some of their parents were very attached to everything Russian, especially if they were older.

Answer 11

First, I just have to say that this question is narrow-minded and daft. Do you know about the history of Jewish people in Russia? I could go on for a very long time but in the meantime you can just wikipedia it.

Russian Jewish people who have moved to Israel did not move to be a part of the larger Israeli community- they moved because of the terrible conditions they have to face in their home country. They have stuck through anti-Semitism from Tsarist Russia, from the Soviet Union, and the current wave of neo-Nazism in Russia. They came to Israel to be in Zion, to flee anti-Semitism, and to be among other Russian Jews.



So of course you will say, but this is my country, so assimilate. The elder population will definitely not as they see the modern Israeli culture to be foreign to them and not the way they live their life, you can wait a few generations for them to become secular Jews like I am in the United States.

It is the same in every country, and I don't know what the post about the divide between the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim came from. And about the Russian prostitutes, do you mean the girls that are taken from their homes and told of freedom in another country and when they get there, they get turned into prostitutes?

In Yiddish, you are not directly supposed to wish bad on somebody else so- may the same never happen to you or your family.