ITRODUCTION
The Immigration of Jewish people in USSR under Mikhail Gorbachev administration is generally considered as a response to huge demand of Jews who desperately wanted to leave Soviet Union, and a state policy towards ethnic minority issues. Historically speaking, anti Semitism was rooted for centuries in Russia. Jews had been prosecuting since Czarist Russia, and most recently the prosecution reached peak under Stalin administration. People would think that it was the long existing hostile atmosphere towards Jewish people that primarily led their migration out of USSR. Yet it is a more complicated picture.
When Gorbachev came to power as the secretary of general of the Party in 1985, Soviet immigration policy was, to significant extent, adjusted based on Soviet bleak economic conditions and diplomatic relationships with United States and Israel. The transition was not merely a compromise under the pressure of Western powers but also an attempt to reverse economic deterioration such as high unemployment. In the thesis, I shall discuss the outstanding reasons that behind immigration policy transition under Gorbachev administration as well as the consequences and implications.
PART I: the Reasons
The immigration transition made by Gorbachev administration could be divided into two periods. The first period is from 1985 to 1986, when Gorbachev initiated radical reform known as perestroika, which literally means reconstruction. The stagnating Soviet economy and chilling relationship with the US led him to adopt the concept of glasnost and “New Thinking”, which can be translated as a series of promotions of openness and liberty in public affairs and flexibility in foreign policies. The decree of Council of Ministers...
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...s to migrate to Israel, since costs of accommodation in Israel was much lower than that in America.
Despite all that negative consequences, Soviet Jews still brought bright outlook worldwide. From economic perspective, Soviet Jews migrated from Soviet Union where workers were low productive to countries where worker were more productive. Thus, Jewish migration increased production efficiency and living standards on the global scale, as well as individual level of their own. One example would be Jewish immigrants in Israel and United States, where their contributions to economic and social developments exceeded negative impacts like ethnic conflicts and welfare pressure. More importantly, on humanity base, the transition enabled Jews to pursue prosperity and liberty, as well as to fulfill their desires in culture, religion, and politics in the new promising lands.
As well as having different language, these people had different religions which include: 70% Christian Orthodox; 9% Roman Catholic; 11% Muslim; 4% Jewish. Virtually, the whole population of Russia was situated in the fertile land in the southwest. This meant that population density was very high and cities and towns were overcrowded. However, Russia’s low industrial output was not the only problem for the peasants and factory workers.
The majority of the people and families that came to America had to start with nothing, and work from the ground up. Some of the people were working for measly two dollars a week. The Eastern European Jews at that time weren’t working for themselves most of the time. Most of the time they had whole families to feed, or they had prior obligations they had to fulfill. Many of the Jewish people’s wages were put towards a ship fare, to get their family out of Eastern Europe and into the free America.
Throughout history, Jews have been persecuted in just about every place they have settled. Here I have provided just a small ...
Daniel, Roger is a highly respected author and professor who has majored in the study of immigration in history and more specifically the progressive ear. He’s written remarkable works over the history of immigration in America, in his book Not like Us he opens a lenses about the hostile and violent conditions immigrants faced in the 1890’s through the 1924’s. Emphasizing that during the progressive area many immigrants felt as they were living in a regressing period of their life. While diversity of ethnicity and race gradually grew during this time it also sparked as a trigger for whites creating the flare up of nativism. Daniel’s underlines the different types of racial and ethnical discrimination that was given to individual immigrant
The Change in Status and Position of Jews in Russia, France and Germany in the Years 1880-1920
Firstly to justify why countries limit their immigrations, there should be knowledge of the different types of immigrants as there are different reasons to leave from one country and move into another. In the last 30 years, the number of international immigrants has been estimated 191 million worldwide, two times as before. As ...
Nowadays, United States is the country that has variety of cultures, races, etc. mixing together by having immigrants in their countries. However, they need to control these group of people also. More people out of country are trying to stay in the U.S. However, this is not an easy process to deal with. There is an immigrant policy that they have to go through. In the past, United States is wide open for people to settle down on this land. There is no process of immigrants. However, in the middle of 1840 to 1880, immigrants started to come in the U.S. such as Irish and Chinese because of demanding of unskilled and cheap labors. In the 1920, automation replaced unskilled labors as a result immigrant’s policy is limited quotas for immigrants
As the industrial revolution progressed, the country evolved from a rural agricultural society into an urban industrial nation. Capitalists now dominate the economy, sparking dramatic social, political, and economic tensions for immigrants. Although, the progressivism movement assisted immigrants by alleviating work conditions, immigrants were still left to face social and economic tension as they became the new competition for low wage earners and were ostracized for religious differences.
There is quite a difference between “New” immigration and “Old” immigration in which, the old immigrants came from Northern and Western Europe such as, Ireland, Germany, Great Britain, and Scandinavian countries before 1890. They arrived when the frontiers were open to them, in which they settled down on farms. On the other hand, “New” immigrations occurred at a later time, particularly after 1890, where immigra...
Before the 1920’s Americans had an ‘open door’ policy and many people from around the world travelled there to fight poverty and experience the American dream. However, then America introduced two immigration laws in 1921 and 1924, which restricted immigrants from Southern, Central and Western European countries such as Italy and Russia. Fear of communism explains the changes in American policy toward immigration in the 1920’s to a certain extent. However factors such as Isolationism, Prejudice and Racism, Social Fears, the Effects of WW1 and Economic fears were also important. In 1917, the Russian revolution took place.
Most narratives out of the Holocaust from the Nazis point of view are stories of soldiers or citizens who were forced to partake in the mass killings of the Jewish citizens. Theses people claim to have had no choice and potentially feared for their own lives if they did not follow orders. Neighbors, The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, by Jan T. Gross, shows a different account of people through their free will and motivations to kill their fellow Jewish Neighbors. Through Gross’s research, he discovers a complex account of a mass murder of roughly 1,600 Jews living in the town of Jedwabne Poland in 1941. What is captivating about this particular event was these Jews were murdered by friends, coworkers, and neighbors who lived in the same town of Jedwabne. Gross attempts to explain what motivated these neighbors to murder their fellow citizens of Jedwabne and how it was possible for them to move on with their lives like it had never happened.
The cold war was failed by the Soviet Union for many reasons, including the sudden collapse of communism (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) This sudden collapse of communism was brought on ultimately by internal factors. The soviet unions president Gorbachev’s reforms: glasnost (openness) and perestroika (political reconstructering) ultimately caused the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Gorbachev’s basics for glasnost were the promotion of principles of freedom to criticize; the loosening of controls on media and publishing; and the freedom of worship. His essentials of perestroika were, a new legislature; creation of an executive presidency; ending of the ‘leading role’ of the communist party; allowing state enterprises to sell part of their product on the open market; lastly, allowing foreign companies to own Soviet enterprises (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) Gorbachev believed his reforms would benefit his country, but the Soviet Union was ultimately held together by the soviet tradition he was trying to change. The Soviet Union was none the less held together by “…powerful central institutions, pressure for ideological conformity, and the threat of force.
History of Immigration to the United States of America starting in the 1600’s, is very complex, with different waves of African Slaves, Indentured Servants, Asian, Latino Immigrants and other immigrants. The attitudes of immigrants have changed overtime with different peaks and dips of ethnic backgrounds, with New Immigration (1930-2000), which gave rise to illegal immigration. New Immigration is when Americans worried about immigration with the rise of Southern Europeans and Russians entering the U.S. and the issue of America being a melting pot or dumping ground to the American economy, politics and culture. Before World War I, piecemeal of immigration had not changed till the National Origins Formula of 1921, which restricted immigrants entering the U.S and gave fondness to immigrants within Europe. In 1934, Tydings-McDuffie Act organized self-government of the Philippines on July 4, 1946, which eliminated non-immigration of the Philippines, therefore, ushering in second to last part of U.S. Immigration. After 1945, the country passed the War Brides Act, Displaced Persons Act of 1948, McCarran Walter Immigration Act, and Refugee Relief Act, which limited the amount you could do in U.S as well as getting other immigrants to safety. The Hart-Cellar Act (1965) eliminated racially based quota system and brought in Asians, Africans and Middle Eastern people over to the U.S., replacing quotas with groups established on family relationships, job skills, in order to see reasoning behind coming to the U.S., but occupations were looked at by the U.S. Department of Labor. In 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) created penalties for people employing illegal immigrants, giving amnesty to only 1,000,000 illegal workers. Legal...
In Europe, immigration has always been a part of its history, but large-scale migration has been in more recent years. In a 13-year span from 1960 to 1973 there was a major increase in the number of foreign workers in the work force. The percent doubled from 3 percent to six percent of workers in the
...an countries. These immigrants brought with them Jewish, cultural heritages and traditions which were very different from those existing in Israel at the time. This Western-oriented culture demanded acknowledgement to its morals and values, causing a huge conflict which caused a misfortune to the newcomers of the state. Immigration had a negative effect on the traditional communital aspects and interpersonal relations. Original and understood values which had provided the infrastructure for community consensus were vastly weakened. Family roles were destroyed and past experience provided no representation for current needs and wants. Cooperative activity became very difficult. Old Fashioned leadership which had relied on the traditional frameworks of society was also declared void in the new situations that had seceded the vast amounts of immigration (Home).