Urban Restructuring and the Absorption of Immigrants: A Case Study in Tel-Aviv

Abstract

Large cities have traditionally played a central role in shaping the opportunities of immigrants in industrial countries by offering employment and inexpensive housing. In past decades, manufacturing industries (i.e. textiles, metals) absorbed a large proportion of urban immigrants. These unionized industries offered immigrants an entry into the core sectors and provided them with the opportunity for political involvement (Merton, 1949; Shefter, 1976; Lupsha, 1976). Additionally, large urban economies offered employment opportunities through the development of ethnic economic enclaves based on entrepreneurial activities (Stark and Taylor, 1988; Bonacich, 1973; Light 1984). Research findings in the U.S. in fact indicate that immigrants settling in cities attained higher social standing than did those settling in non-urban areas (Lieberson, 1980; Chiswick, 1978). In those cities which serve as entry points for immigrants due to their abundant supply of inexpensive housing, urban ecological structure has been shaped to a significant degree by the very fact of immigration (Burgess 1925 (1967); Godfrey, 1988). Immigrants, for the most part, have found shelter in the inner areas of the cities, converting them into transition areas. However, in more recent decades, changes in urban economies and in the demand for space have occurred. Industrial and manufacturing activities have decreased and, simultaneously, communication, information processing and supervisory activities and legal, accounting, and insurance services have grown (Fainstein and Fainstein, 1982, 1989; Fainstein, 1990). These processes are termed urban economic restructuring.