Development Towns in Israel: The Role of Community in Creating Ethnic Disparities in Labor Force Characteristics

Abstract

This paper investigates the contribution of community to ethnic stratification is Israel. We show that "development towns," a category of new settlements established to achieve population dispersal and immigrant absorption, have influenced (a) the areal distributions of different ethnic (country-of origin) group, (b) the tendency for each group to be concentrated in certain industries, and (c) the occupational opportunities available to the members of an ethnic population. We also review the relevance of this analysis for understanding ethnic stratification in America.