Please take a moment to
visit and log in at the subscriber
area, and submit your city & country location. We will use this
information in future to invite you to any events that we organize in
your area.
Related Articles
The
Myth of Ethnic Inequality in Israel
by Steven Plaut
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2014
  Be the first of
your friends to like this.
|
Ethnicity
in Israel is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. Both Jews and Arabs
are subdivided into ethnic sub-groups, and there are important
differences in socioeconomic status among Arab Muslims, Arab
Christians, and Arab Druze.
|
It is commonplace to attribute much of Israel's domestic tensions to
supposed Jewish discrimination against the country's Arab citizens.[1] Nearly every Israeli Arab
nongovernmental organization insists that such discrimination
characterizes the Jewish state in general and its labor markets in
particular.[2]
The Israeli media routinely interview Israeli Arabs (and non-Ashkenazi
Jews) who claim to have been victims of discrimination. These
allegeations are echoed by Jewish Israeli academics, think tanks, and
journalists, especially on the political Left, not to mention the
international anti-Israel movement and the boycott, divestment, and
sanctions campaign. Indeed, the U.S. Department of State has even joined
the growing outcry concerning Israel's alleged racist discrimination
against its Arab citizens.[3]
Of course, in reality, Israel is the only Middle Eastern entity that
is not an apartheid regime, and the apartheid slander holds no water
whatsoever save in the minds of the Jewish state's enemies and defamers.
Yet discrimination is a scientifically empirical question subject to testing
and not a matter of subjective personal opinion. Stripping away the
venomous anti-Israel rhetoric, the legitimate question remains whether
and how much discrimination really exists in Israel.
Inequality
Myths
Ethnicity in Israel is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. Both
Jews and Arabs are subdivided into ethnic sub-groups, making exploration
and analysis of ethnic disparities a complex challenge. In official
statistical data on income, Israeli Arabs are treated as a single
population group, but this is somewhat misleading. There are important
differences in socio-economic status and performance among Arab
Christians, Arab Muslims, and Druse. Those sub-categories are in fact
amalgams of even smaller divisions. For example, there are interesting
differences between "ordinary" Arab Muslims and Bedouins. The
Israeli Income Survey sample does not include the Arab population of the
"occupied territories," except for East Jerusalem and the small
population of the Golan Heights, both of which are formally annexed to
Israel.
Ethnicity among Jews is even more complex. It is commonly measured in
Israel for statistical purposes based upon the continent of birth of the
person or the person's father. Jews born in Asia and Africa (or the
children of fathers born there) correspond roughly to Sephardic or
Mizrahi Jews. Those born in Europe, the United States, or Australia (and
their children) correspond roughly to Ashkenazi or Western Jews. These
distinctions are imperfect as there are Ashkenazi Jews who come from Asia
and Africa (including South Africa and some Egyptian Jews) and Sephardic
Jews who come from Europe (including from Greece, Yugoslavia, and
Bulgaria). Over time this "continent of birth" criterion for
defining ethnicity is losing its validity because of the rapid increase
in native-born Israelis who are themselves sons and daughters of
native-born Israelis. In addition, the high intermarriage rate among Jews
in Israel from different communities is blurring ethnic distinctions.[4]
Before tackling the specific patterns of ethnic inequality and
discrimination in Israeli labor markets, it is necessary to dispose of
certain myths and superstitions, beginning with the assumption that
heterogeneity proves discrimination. It is a common but mistaken belief
that, in the absence of discrimination, the numerical representation in
any profession or wage range for all groups in a society should be the
same as the proportion of that group in the general population. This
might be called the false axiom of "natural homogeneity." Thus
if Group A is over-represented in a profession, compared with its weight
in the general population, then it must be the beneficiary of
discrimination in its favor. If Group B is under-represented, it must be suffering
from discrimination against its members. Many then conclude that
affirmative action quotas are needed to remedy the problem. This is known
as the "disparate impact" standard or pseudo-evidence.[5]
But the axiom of natural homogeneity is completely specious. Nowhere
in the real world does fair competition produce homogeneous
representation in any market. Indeed, the only way in which such
homogeneity can be achieved is through a rigid anti-competitive system of
assignments in hiring or admissions by quota, one that suppresses
individual interests, skills, culture, economics, family, educational and
regional backgrounds, and meritocracy.
The world is full of examples of radical departures from numerical
homogeneity in representation that clearly have nothing at all to do with
discrimination: Jews around the world are over-represented among those
admitted into universities relative to their numbers in the general
population even in countries that have official policies of discriminating
against Jews. Asian Americans are also over-represented among U.S.
college students but not because these colleges discriminate against
non-Asians. American blacks are not prominent in sports because of
anti-white discrimination. About 60 percent of the medical students in
Israel are women, and this is not because the medical schools
discriminate against men. Israeli Arabs are grossly over-represented
among students in schools of pharmacy, and it is not because these
schools discriminate against Jews. Men are enormously over-represented
among the prison populations in all countries, and it is not because of
gender discrimination. And so on and so forth.
|
About
60 percent of Israeli medical students are women while Israeli Arabs
are over-represented in schools of pharmacy. This is not because these
schools discriminate against male Jews. Israeli Arabs own
proportionately twice as many cars as Israeli Jews; no one has
suggested that this attests to discrimination against Jews.
|
The fallaciousness of the idea that discrimination is proven by
deviation from numerical homogeneity in representation cannot be
over-emphasized. It crops up in almost every debate about ethnic or
gender discrimination. When feminists, media commentators, and even many
academics wish to prove that discrimination exists, their proof usually
consists of presenting numbers that show departure from homogeneity. Such
figures are selected when they serve the agenda of the commentator or
advocate. Yet it turns out that Israeli Arabs own proportionately twice
as many cars as Israeli Jews;[6]
no one has suggested that this attests to discrimination in Israel
against Jews.
In 2013, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz ran an exposé about
supposed discrimination against Israeli Arabs by Israeli banks, which
quickly became the focus of a parliamentary investigation.[7] The alleged evidence was that
Israeli Arabs were paying, on average, higher bank fees than Jews for
certain services. But a closer look showed that Arab bank accounts tend
to be held in small rural banks with higher per-unit costs and may both
be smaller on average and in different sorts of accounts than those held
by Jews. For example, Arabs hold fewer long-term provident savings or
retirement accounts, in part because the age structure of the Arab
population is younger than its Jewish counterpart. All this results in
different arrays of fees being charged but has nothing to do with
discrimination. However, such an explanation would provide little
sensationalist grist for the media or headline-grabbing power for
politicians.
If numerical representation and deviation from natural homogeneity add
nothing in terms of understanding discrimination, what about analyzing
differences in wages and salaries directly? It would seem that if
discrimination does indeed exist in a society, the most promising arena
to seek it out is the labor market. But here, too, problems exist.
Analysis of possible discrimination as reflected in labor market wages
has the advantage of being able to utilize a rich data set, unlike other
markets in which discrimination is alleged. It also matters more. Few,
including Arab leaders, would care very much if, after controlling for
all the other possible explanations, Israeli Arabs were really paying
higher bank fees than Jews. But everyone would think it is important if
Arabs were the victims of wage discrimination. Having noted this, it
still needs to be emphasized that the mere documentation of a disparity
in wages between Jews and Arabs does not in and of itself prove anything,
much less discrimination.
Consider the following situation: Suppose that it is found that
45-year-old Israeli Jewish software engineers with postgraduate degrees
earn several times the wages of 20-year-old Arab youths who never
finished high school. Would this datum be evidence of discrimination
against Arabs in the labor market?
Of course, 45-year-old engineers in any ethnic population generally
earn far more than 20-year-old high school dropouts. Their labor is
simply worth more, and the market prices it accordingly. If one controls
for education, age, and field of study, it is possible to compare
45-year-old Jewish engineers with Arab engineers, or 20-year-old Jewish
with Arab high school dropouts, to see if there are any residual gaps in
wages. There could also be other factors not yet taken into account that
explain observed residual disparities, for example, disparities between
wages in rural/peripheral labor markets and those in metropolitan areas.
Any suspected ethnic discrimination is tentative and needs to be assessed
in light of many other non-ethnic factors that affect wages.
Special attention needs to be paid to differences in labor force
participation rates. Arab women in Israel, especially married Muslim
women, have very low participation rates. This means that most employed
Arab women are young and not yet married, which in turn generates a
considerable gap in earnings levels when compared with Jewish women (and
men of all groups). Gender differences in wages must be separated out to
understand patterns of ethnic inequality.
It has been demonstrated in other countries that something as
innocuous as age structure may often explain a considerable portion of
disparities in earnings across ethnic/racial groups. For example, the
eminent economist Thomas Sowell has demonstrated that one of the major
causes for racial inequality in the United States is age difference, with
the black and Hispanic population considerably younger than the white
population for a variety of demographic reasons. He pointed out that
"Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans have median ages of less than
twenty years while the average Irish American or Italian American is more
than thirty years old, and Jewish Americans are over forty."[8] Since 40-year-olds invariably
earn far more than 20-year-olds, a significant portion of earnings
disparities among American ethnic groups reflects nothing more than age
structure differences.
Age structure also explains part of the earning differences in Israel
since Israeli Jews are on average considerably older than Israeli Arabs,
particularly Israeli Muslims. It is estimated that the median age of
Muslim Israelis is 19 while the median age of Jewish Israelis is 31.[9] (Interestingly, Christian Arabs
have an age structure similar to that of Jews, with median age 30, and
also have mean earnings very close to those of Jews.) So an age-explained
earnings gap similar to that in the United States arises where age
explains part of ethnic inequality.
Data and Raw
Inequality Patterns
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) conducts an annual
survey of income and wages. It is a large, scientifically-designed,
representative survey that covers the entire Israeli population excluding
the population in the "occupied territories," foreign temporary
workers, and tourists. The CBS is staffed with professional statisticians
of the highest caliber, and its operations are in line with international
standards of professionalism and integrity.
Part of the income survey is based on households (N = 14,996) and
measures income at the household level from various sources. Another is
based on income from salary and other sources for individual earners
(N=35,680) aged over 15. A household can have multiple earners. Income
measured includes that from salaries, self-employment, capital, pension,
alimony, social insurance, governmental support, and other categories.[10] Other variables contained in
the survey include age, marital status, schooling, ethnicity, occupation,
and location of residence.[11]
What does the income survey show about ethnic inequality in Israel?
One can begin to digest the data starting with the raw numbers and
measures of earnings, not adjusted for variables such as age and years of
schooling. These numbers explain little about actual patterns of income
inequality in Israel but offer a starting point for exploration.
In the Israeli "Income Survey of 2011," the average salary
for the entire population of Israeli Arab males was 50.2 percent of the
mean for the entire population of Jewish males. Jewish females on average
earned salaries that were 61.8 percent of those of Jewish males. Arab
females earned only 34 percent of the salaries of Arab males and 28
percent of the salaries of Jewish females,[12] but this was no doubt in part
because of part-time employment common among Arab women. Raw household
income disparities follow a somewhat different pattern because salaries
are only one component of household income. Household income for Arabs
was about 55 percent that of Jews. While these raw disparities appear
large, they are not unusual when comparing across ethnic populations
within countries. The real question remains what is causing them.
There are also disparities in the raw figures among subgroups of Jews,
to some extent caused by age structure. The groups with the highest
salaries and household incomes are native-born Jews. Those born elsewhere
are usually divided between recent immigrants and earlier immigrants. The
dividing line for distinguishing recent immigrants is necessarily
arbitrary; in the discussion here, the cutoff used is 1990. In the last
two decades, the largest group of new immigrants has been from the former
Soviet Union. A separate smaller group, about whose economic performance
relatively little is known, consists of Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia.
These will be separated out here from other immigrants by distinguishing
them as recent immigrants born in Africa. This, too, is an imperfect
measure, and some Jews from North African countries and from South Africa
are probably mixed into this sub-sample definition as well.
Among native-born Israelis, the Ashkenazi males earn 16 percent more
than the Mizrahi/Sephardic males. Ashkenazi and Mizrahi females earn
exactly the same average salaries, which are about 40 percent lower than
for native-born Ashkenazi males. Among foreign-born Jews, Mizrahim earn
average salaries 32 percent lower than Ashkenazim for males, and 39
percent lower for females. Women in all population groups earn less than
men in the same groups.
So the starting point is a set of seemingly wide disparities in
average earnings across Israeli ethnic groups. Jews earn more than Arabs,
in fact twice as much on average; women earn less than men; Mizrahim earn
less than Ashkenazim. Two additional caveats need to be mentioned. First,
these numbers are based on reported salaries. While survey respondents
were told the information was confidential and would not be passed on to
the tax authorities, it is possible that some of the salary numbers are
in fact under-reported. Israel is thought to have a significant
underground or unreported economy where cash is earned under the table.
For a variety of reasons, including concentrations in occupations in
which non-reporting is easier and more common, it is generally believed
that non-reporting of income is higher among Arabs than among Jews.
An additional caveat is that disparities across ethnic groups in
salaries and in household income are different from disparities in
household expenditures. Standards of living are ultimately measured in
real consumption rather than in monetary terms, and in Israel, gaps in
levels of expenditure among the ethnic groups are considerably smaller than
those in salaries or incomes. In addition, intentional under-reporting of
income is unlikely to affect reported levels of expenditure, and so these
data may be more reliable. The bottom line is that raw inequality among
Israeli ethnic groups is considerably smaller when measured in terms of
expenditures rather than incomes.
Analysis of
Individual Salary and Earnings
To understand properly the role of ethnicity in explaining disparities
in earnings, one needs to take into account other non-ethnic factors that
affect earnings, notably gender, age, education (measured in several
different ways), marital status, number of persons in household,
immigration status (new immigrant vs. not), membership in certain elite
professions such as manager or engineer, and geographic variables
(residence in one of the large cities, in medium-sized towns, etc.).
Statistical estimates of the impact upon earnings by individuals of a
variety of ethnic, demographic, and other factors are presented in Table
1 below.
First, after controlling for age, education, and other non-ethnic
explanatory variables, is it really the case that Arabs underperform in
the Israeli labor market when compared with Jews? The answer is
generally, no. It does depend on which definition of earnings is being
used.
When estimating only salaries for both men and women together (not
shown in the table), Arabs do indeed underperform when compared with
Jews. The difference is not very large (approximately 450 shekels a month
or a bit over $100), and this is very small when compared to the raw
disparity between earnings of Jews and Arabs, seen above as being
approximately a 100 percent difference. The disadvantage in salary
earnings for Arabs is about the same as that experienced by Jewish new
immigrants in Israel.
But salaries are only one component of individual earnings. Salaries
are what employees receive from employers while "all individual
earnings" include things such as self-employed income by artisans or
shop-owners or owners of proprietary establishments. Such self-employed
and proprietary income is probably more common among Arabs than Jews, the
latter being more likely to be salaried employees. The numbers in the
table here show the results when analyzing all individual earnings from
all sources, including such non-salary sources. When controlling for age,
schooling, and the other non-ethnic factors, Israeli Arabs outperform
Jews on average, earning more than Jews of similar age and schooling
levels. Indeed, on average Arabs earn more than both Ashkenazi and
Sephardic Jews, about 9 percent higher, other things being equal.
The fact that the labor market disadvantage of Israeli Arabs
disappears entirely when total individual earnings (as opposed to
salaries alone) are analyzed may be because many Arabs are self-employed.[13] In any case, it turns out that
not only do non-ethnic factors explain the bulk of the raw disparity in
earnings between Israeli Arabs and Jews, but in many cases they explain
more than the total disparity. In the case of total individual earnings
income, they explain more than 100 percent of the raw disparity (meaning
that, after controlling for explanatory variables, Arabs actually
outperform Jews).
The picture becomes clearer when men and women earners are analyzed
separately. This has the advantage of removing gender differences in
labor force participation rates from the analysis of the role of
ethnicity. The gap in earnings for Arab women compared with Jewish women
is quite small when controlling for other variables; it is only about 2
percent to the advantage of Jews. But for males, Arabs are at a 10
percent advantage over Jews in total individual earnings. Again, Arabs
outperform Jews.
|
It
is important to distinguish between salaries and earnings. For example,
Israeli Arab males may make on average 50 percent less than Israeli
Jewish males in salary, but in earnings (which include income sources
such as self-employment), they out-perform Israeli Jews by
approximately 9 percent on average.
|
Arabs also have a disadvantage compared with Jews when it comes to
total household earnings (not shown in the table), as opposed to total
individual earnings. But the wider gap at the household earnings level is
due to factors outside the labor market. Jews have higher savings rates
than Arabs, and thus have higher levels of household capital income.[14] Jews are also older and so
receive on average higher amounts of retirement income. These disparities
in non-labor income at the level of households largely reflect
differences between Jews and Arabs in savings behavior and household
composition and cannot be attributed to labor market discrimination.
What about disparities across ethnic sub-groups of Israeli Jews? The
first notable pattern is this: The main group that over-performs compared
with others is native-born Israeli Jews or sabras. Being born in
the country confers a distinct earnings advantage in Israel as it does in
most other countries. There is a modest advantage in income, about 8
percent for men and 2 percent for women, for those who are native-born
Israeli Jews, compared with those who are foreign-born. And this is true
for both Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Jews.
When controlling for other non-ethnic factors, Ashkenazim have a small
advantage over Mizrahim among men, about 2 percent for total individual
income and 4 percent for salary alone, much smaller than the gap in the
raw earnings numbers, and much smaller than the premium enjoyed by
native-born Jews. For women, Ashkenazim slightly underperform Mizrahim.
More generally, because of the advantage of being a sabra, a
native-born Mizrahi Jew would generally outperform a non-native Ashkenazi
Jew, other things being equal. When men and women are separated in the
analysis of earnings, the "natives" retain an earnings
advantage among both genders. Mizrahi Jewish women are outperforming the
Ashkenazi Jewish women.
Recent immigrants in Israel are at an earnings disadvantage compared
to the other population groups. Controlling for age, education, and the
other non-ethnic factors, recent immigrants earn about 5.5 percent less
in total individual earnings while for salary alone (not shown in the
table), they earn 10-14 percent less than other Israelis. The earnings
disadvantage is larger for men than for women. Interestingly, immigrants
from Africa (mainly Ethiopians) do not suffer from any special earnings
disadvantage as compared with the earnings levels of all recent
immigrants. All immigrants are at a modest disadvantage in the labor
market, but Ethiopians no more so than non-Ethiopian immigrants. When men
and women are analyzed separately, Ethiopians slightly outperform the
other immigrants.
Are Israeli
Arabs Disadvantaged Because of Schooling?
Economists like to describe schooling and degrees as "human
capital," and it is possible to measure the returns or market
rewards to this capital using statistical methodologies. One issue that
has frequently been debated in Israel is whether educated Arabs are at a
market disadvantage, since—because of discrimination—they are less
capable of capitalizing upon their educational achievements.[15]
Once again, the presumption of discrimination does not survive empirical
statistical analysis. The truth is quite the opposite: The return on
schooling for Israeli Arabs is generally considerably higher than it is
for Israeli Jews. In almost every estimate, using different measures of
schooling and of earnings, the return on education appears to be higher
for Arabs after controlling statistically for other variables.[16] This is true both for salaries
and for all individual earnings. Since the reward for educational
achievement is, if anything, higher for Arabs than for Jews, this rules
out the claim of systematic discrimination against Arabs who accumulate
human capital and capitalize upon it in the labor market.
The return on schooling is not the same, however, as the reward for
membership in elite professions. Arabs, like Jews, who are members of
managerial or other professional groups (lawyers, doctors, engineers,
etc.) enjoy a significant earnings advantage over those who are not
members of these groups. The bonus or premium for Arabs, however, is
lower than that for Jews. Discrimination cannot be ruled out as a causal
factor here although other factors unrelated to discrimination could also
explain these disparities, including differences in distribution among
professions within the broader elite professional categories.
Where Is the
Apartheid?
The most surprising conclusion from the econometric analysis of ethnic
earnings disparities in Israel is how many of the stereotypical
characterizations of Israel turn out to be false. Ethnicity in Israel
simply does not play a large role in the labor market, in contrast with
gender or schooling.
While it is widely presumed that the Arab minority underperforms in
the labor market of the Jewish state, either because of discrimination or
other structural or cultural disadvantages, this turns out not to be so.
That accusation is central to the claim that Israel is some sort of
apartheid regime. While the raw mean earnings of Arabs are considerably
lower than those of Jews, the two populations differ in many significant
ways, including age and schooling, and little can be concluded from this
raw comparison on its own. When education, age, marital status,
geographic location, and professional group membership are taken into
account, Arab-Jewish earnings disparities all but disappear, and in some
cases, they even invert, so that the Arabs outperform the Jews. This is
particularly true of male earners.If the data fail to show a clear
pattern of Arab underperformance in earnings compared with Jews with
similar levels of schooling, the stereotype of Ashkenazi Jews
outperforming Mizrahi or Sephardic Jews appears just as inaccurate. Once
education and the other explanatory variables are controlled, there is
very little difference between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim earnings, and in a
few cases, particularly for women, Mizrahim outperform Ashkenazi women.
The Ashkenazi-Mizrahi distinction certainly appears to be less important
in explaining earnings differences than the distinction between
native-born Jews and foreign-born Jews or recent immigrants. Here again,
there are differences between men and women. Ashkenazi women slightly
underperform Mizrahi women, other things being equal, while Ashkenazi men
slightly outperform compared with Mizrahi men. The bottom line is that the
data do not support the presumption that Mizrahim are systematically
disadvantaged in Israeli labor markets.
While new immigrants underperform relative to other Jewish Israelis,
other things being equal, Ethiopians do not appear to suffer from any
special earnings disadvantage compared with other immigrants. If
Ethiopian immigrants earn low levels of salary, it is because they have
low levels of schooling. But given their level of schooling, they earn
the same on average as immigrants from Russia, South Africa, and
Argentina. When estimating total individual income separately for men or
for women, the Ethiopians even slightly outperform the other immigrants.
In spite of what statistical analyses have to show, the subject of
discrimination in Israel continues to fill the media, which seem to be
obsessed with it even while refusing to examine actual data. For example,
in the summer of 2013, a television documentary on Israel's Channel Ten,
produced by popular journalist Amnon Levy, triggered considerable media
debate inside Israel. It claimed to have investigated and discovered that
anti-Mizrahi discrimination is as bad as it had been back in the early
decades of Israeli independence.[17]
Real data show otherwise.
The problem is not just in the media. The academic careers of many in
Israel, particularly in sociology, have been constructed entirely upon
unsubstantiated allegations of Israeli racism. Israeli sociologists in
general tend to accept at face value the notion that any documented
disparity in earnings or numerical representation between Israeli Jews
and Arabs must be due to discrimination.[18] Perhaps the most notorious
example is that of Yehouda Shenhav, a sociologist at Tel Aviv University.
Shenhav is father of the notion that "Oriental Jews" are in
fact "Arabs of the Mosaic faith," and together with Arabs,
share a victimhood imposed upon them by racist Ashkenazi Zionists.[19] Shenhav and those of similar
ideological orientation operate the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow, dedicated
to liberating "Oriental Jews" from Ashkenazi bigotry and
capitalism.[20]
In Israel's media, it is considered common knowledge that Arabs,
Mizrahim, and Ethiopians are victims of harsh discrimination.[21] The accusations of apartheid
may be malicious, disingenuous, and over-the-top—or so most Israeli
commentators and sociologists would agree—but the presumption of an
underlying widespread pattern of discrimination is, to their minds,
undeniable. The extent to which some in Israel go to manufacture evidence
of discrimination can be awe-inspiring. For example, the ordinarily
prestigious Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), a left-wing think tank,
published a study in May 2013 that claimed to have discovered unambiguous
proof of widespread discrimination in Israel against Arabs.[22] Composed by IDI legal staffer
Tanya Steiner under the supervision of Hebrew University professor
Mordechai Kremnitzer, the study's evidence was the number of complaints
about discrimination submitted to the Israeli Commission on Equal
Opportunities in Employment. Yet while numerous complaints from women
reached the commission, only 3 percent of the complaints it received were
from Israeli Arabs, who represent about 18 percent of the labor force. Of
these, only three of the complaints received in the entire 2011 year by
the commission about alleged anti-Arab discrimination were deemed worthy of
investigation. So instead of concluding that the evidence points to an
absence of discrimination, the IDI's conclusion was that it all proves
how badly discriminated Israeli Arabs are in Israel; after all, they are
so victimized that they do not even file complaints about discrimination.
Conclusion
There is no evidence that points to ethnic discrimination against
Israeli Arabs or Mizrahi Jews in Israeli labor markets. Recent immigrants
appear to be the one group in the country at an earnings disadvantage.
But it would be difficult to make a case that even their disadvantage is
due to discrimination since immigrants in all societies are at a
competitive disadvantage compared with natives.
There could be other groups in Israeli society that are victims of
discrimination, but the data are not available in a form that allows for
investigation. In particular, a plausible case for such discrimination
may be that against ultra-Orthodox Jews. Gender discrimination also
cannot be ruled out, but that is a separate and difficult methodological
question beyond the scope of the discussion here.
The nearly complete absence of evidence of ethnic discrimination in
Israeli labor markets does not, of course, preclude its existence in
other markets or aspects of society. As was shown here, Arabs earn a
higher return on education than Jews. But this does not rule out possible
discrimination against Arabs in admissions to universities and colleges.
It should be noted, however, that Israeli universities routinely
implement affirmative action preferences in favor of Arabs and sometimes
in favor of Mizrahim (and women).[23]
The only other documented university discrimination is that which grants
some preferences to army veterans, a practice found in most countries.
There have also been allegations that Israel discriminates in its
fiscal allocations and revenue sharing where Arab towns and villages are
underfunded. But an empirical analysis of the question found just the
opposite; if anything, the Arab local authorities were being over-funded.[24] Evidence regarding other
alleged forms of discrimination by Israel tends to be just as skimpy.
Some accusations are based upon Israel's granting automatic citizenship
to Jews under its "Law of Return." But such citizenship
entitlements are not unusual in the world and can be found in many other
countries, such as Armenia, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, and are
guaranteed under the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.[25] Another indictment of Israel
concerns the discriminatory nature of its military conscription. Jews and
Druse are conscripted into the Israeli military while Arabs may volunteer
for service but are not conscripted. Again, this practice may indeed
constitute discrimination but that discrimination is against Jews, not
against Arabs.
None of this proves that discrimination never exists in Israel against
Arabs, against Mizrahi Jews, or anyone else. But the very fact that
empirical evidence of discrimination is so hard to discern or observe
must itself serve as an important warning indicator about its magnitude
or lack thereof.
Steven Plaut teaches at the Graduate School of Management at
the University of Haifa.
Table 1:
Impact Effect of Various Factors on Salary Earnings for Men and Women[26]
|
|
(3)
Individual's Total Income
(includes self-employ and "other" income)
– Males and Females
|
(1)
Individual's Total Income
from all Sources
– Males Only
|
(3)
Individual Total Income
from all Sources
– Females Only
|
Age
|
Decreases by 1.3% for each extra year
|
Decreases by 1.1% for each extra year
|
Decreases by 1.5% for each extra year
|
Effect of adding one extra year of schooling
|
--
|
--
|
Increases 6.0%
|
Increment for having matriculation diploma (only)
|
Decreases by 6.0%
|
Decreases by 7.6%
|
--
|
College graduate dummy (increment over matriculation alone)
|
Increases 39.6%
|
Increases 42.5%
|
--
|
Postgraduate degree (increment over having BA)
|
Increases 10.6%
|
Increases 12.5%
|
--
|
Increment for being married
|
Increases 44.9%
|
Increases 56.5%
|
Increases 35.5%
|
Increment for being male
|
Increases 35.3%
|
--
|
--
|
Adding one person to household size
|
Decreases by 3.6%
|
Decreases by 3.4%
|
Decreases by 3.8%
|
Increment for being Arab
|
Increases 8.5%
|
Increases 9.8%
|
Decreases by 2.1%
|
Increment for being native born (sabra) Israeli Jew
|
Increases 7.3%
|
Increases 8.3%
|
Increases 2.1%
|
Increment for being Ashkenazi
|
Decreases by 0.1%
|
Increases 1.8%
|
Decreases by 3.7%
|
Increment for residence in Jerusalem
|
Decreases by 7.6%
|
Decreases by 15.4%
|
Decreases by 3.2%
|
Increment for residence in Tel Aviv
|
Increases 17.2%
|
Increases 15.0%
|
Increases 20.6%
|
Increment for residence in Haifa
|
Decreases by 13.5%.
|
Decreases by 12.0%
|
Decreases by 15.0%
|
Increment for being new immigrant (arrived since 1990)
|
Decreases by 5.5%
|
Decreases by 7.5%
|
Decreases by 4.3%
|
Increment for being new immigrant from Africa (over previous
increment for being immigrant)
|
Decreases by additional 2.9%
|
Increases by 0.3%
|
Increase by 8.1%
|
Dummy if employed in "academic" profession
|
Increases 45.7%
|
Increases 45.6%
|
Increases 45.5%
|
Dummy if employed as "professional"
|
Increases 31.6%
|
Increases 36.3%
|
Increases 23.7%
|
Dummy if employed as "manager"
|
Increases 75.6%
|
Increases 72.2%
|
Increases 75.9%
|
|
|
|
|
|
Size of sample used for estimates
|
20,069
|
10,424
|
9,703
|
[1] See, for
example, Ayal Kimhi, "Jewish Households, Arab Households, and Income
Inequality in Rural Israel: Ramifications for the Israeli-Arab
Conflict," Defence and Peace Economics, Aug. 2010, pp.
381-94.
[2] For
example, "The
Inequality Report: The Palestinian Arab Minority in Israel,"
Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Haifa, Mar.
2011.
[3] Digital
Journal (Toronto), May
1, 2013.
[4] Yinon
Cohen, Yitzhak Haberfeld and Tali Kristal, "Ethnicity and Mixed
Ethnicity: Educational Gaps among Israeli-born Jews," Ethnic and
Racial Studies, Sept. 1, 2007, pp. 896-917.
[5] Knesset
member Zehava Galon of the leftist Meretz party recently introduced a
bill that would require all proposals of new legislation in Israel to
contain estimates of disparate impact. See Haaretz (Tel Aviv),
Apr. 17, 2014.
[6] Ibid.,
Sept. 12, 2012.
[7] Ibid., June 23, July
30, 2013; The Jerusalem Post, June
8, 2013.
[8] Thomas
Sowell, "The
American Mosaic," Ethnic America: A History (New York:
Basic Books, 1981).
[9] "Projections of
population in Israel for 2010–2025, by sex, age and population group,"
Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv); "The Arab
Population in Israel," idem, p. 2.
[10] "Economic
Characteristics," Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, accessed
Dec. 19, 2013.
[11] "Income
Survey, 2010," Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, Feb. 2012. Only
people earning at least 100 NIS per month in salary are counted in the
analysis below, with the others presumed to be absent from the labor
force.
[12]
Percentages computed by author from data found here: "Income
of Individuals (Income survey)," Israel Central Bureau of
Statistics, Table 25.
[13] Yossi
Shavit and Ephraim Yuchtman-Yaar, "Ethnicity, Education, and
Other Determinants of Self-Employment in Israel," International
Journal of Sociology, Spring, 2001, pp. 59-91.
[14] Haaretz,
June 23, 2013.
[15] See, for
example, "Israel Must End Discrimination against Arab College
Graduates," Haaretz, June 15, 2012.
[16] Pnina O.
Plaut and Steven E. Plaut, "Income Disparities by Ethnicity in
Israel," Israel Affairs, forthcoming.
[17] Panim
Amitiyot: Pirakim Milayim, Aug. 22, 2013, Nana 10 web
site.
[18] See, for
example, Noah Lewin-Epstein and Moshe Semyonov, Stratification in
Israel: Class, Ethnicity, and Gender (New Brunswick, N.J.:
Transaction Books, 2003), pp. 175-281; idem, "Local labor markets,
ethnic segregation, and income inequality," Social Forces,
June 1992, pp. 1101–19; Sammy Smooha and Yohanan Peres, "The
Dynamics of Ethnic Inequalities: The Case of Israel," in Ernest
Krausz, ed., Studies of Israeli Society (New Brunswick, N.J.:
Transaction Books, 1980), vol. no. 1.
[19] Yehouda
Shenhav, "Spineless
Bookkeeping: The Use of Mizrahi Jews as Pawns against Palestinian
Refugees," +972 e-magazine (Israel), Sept. 25, 2012.
[20]
"Hakeshet Hademocratit Hamizrahit," web site, accessed Dec. 10,
2013.
[21] For
example, Yitzhak Laor, "The
Glorious State of Israel and Its Anti-Arab Discrimination," Ha'aretz,
Apr. 15, 2013.
[22] Talya
Steiner, Combating
Discrimination against Arabs in the Israeli Workforce, Policy
Paper No. 97 (Jerusalem: Israel Democracy Institute, 2003).
[23] Haaretz,
Nov.
19, 2009; John Rosenberg, "Affirmative Action … In Israel,"
Discriminations Blog, Sept. 3, 2002; Noga Dagan-Buzaglo, "Non-discriminatory
hiring practices in Israel towards Arab Citizens, Ethiopian Israelis
and new immigrants from Bukhara and the Caucasus," Adva Center, Tel
Aviv, Nov. 2008.
[24] Tal
Shahor, "Fiscal
Allotment Policy vis á vis Minorities: An Empirical Measurement of
the Way in Which Israel's Majority Government Makes Its Fiscal Allotments
to the Arab Minority," Metodološki zvezki (Ljubljana,
Slovenia), no. 1, 2010, pp. 73-93; Efraim Karsh, "Israel's Arabs:
Deprived or Radicalized?" Israel Affairs, Jan. 2013, pp.
1-19.
[25] Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, United Nations General Assembly, New York, Dec. 10,
1948, art. 14.
[26] The
effects of isolated changes in individual factors while holding all other
factors constant. The "default" or base case upon which the
ethnic increments are computed is for "Foreign-born Mizrahi
Jews." The figures in the table should be taken as the best estimate
for changes in earnings caused by isolated changes in each individual
explanatory factor (ethnicity, gender, and so on) while holding all other
factors constant. This shows the isolated effect for Arabs, for example,
on earnings while holding schooling, age, and other factors constant. The
schooling variable is measured differently for the men-only column (where
the effects of achieving degrees are estimated) than for the women-only
column (where the effect of an additional year of schooling is
estimated). The estimates allow us to see the "clean" effects
or impacts of ethnicity and other factors upon earnings in Israel because
these effects are statistically isolated from the many intermingled
effects of the other variables. Estimates taken from regression analysis
equations that are elaborated and appear in full in Pnina O. Plaut and
Steven E. Plaut, "Income Disparities by Ethnicity in Israel," Israel
Affairs, forthcoming.
Related
Topics: Israel & Zionism
| Steven Plaut
| Summer 2014 MEQ
This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is
presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information
provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment