"Making it" in Israel? Latino Undocumented Migrant Workers in the Holy Land SILVINA SCHAMMAH GESSER Tel Aviv University REBECA RAIJMAN University of Haifa ADRIANA KEMPBen Gurion University JULIA REZNIKTel Aviv University Every Saturday evening, hundreds of persons gather at a religious service in a Catholic church where a weekly mass is conducted in Spanish by a Franciscan priest. Many of the churchgoers actively participate, reading passages from the New Testament, singing in the choir, or playing instruments. Melodies of Latin American folk music are played intermittently, breaking the solemnity of the religious ritual. Two important aspects make this event unique: first, that it takes place in the old city of Jaffa, Israel, and second, it is especially organized by the church in order to attend to the needs of an emergent non-Jewish, undocumented Latino community in the city of Tel Aviv. The presence of non-Jewish labor migrants is relatively recent in Israel, having become notable during the early 1990s, when the government began recruiting extensive numbers of foreign workers (Bartram, 1998; Rozenhak, 1998). The increasing influx of non-Jewish migrant workers, and their incorporation into the Israeli labor market and society, has become a significant phenomenon, whose impact has yet to be assessed. At present, non-Jewish (and non-Palestinian) labor migrants (both documented and undocumented) in Israeli society amount to 10 percent of the Israeli labor force. Their presence seems to be changing not only the labor market composition in specific sectors, but the ethnic fabric of the Israeli metropolis as well (Borowski and Yanay, 1997; Bartram, 1998; Schnell, 1999; Kemp et al., 2000). As in most Western European countries, migrant workers in Israel are perceived as incoming temporary labor and not as prospective citizens. Foreign workers (usually from distinct ethnic groups) are considered outsiders in the cultural, social, and political spheres (Baldwin- Edwards and Schain, 1994; Schnapper, 1994; Weiner, 1996). Even the term by which they are known, ovdim zarim (foreign workers), with its biblical connotation of profanity, exemplifies their marginal status. This paper explores various socio-economic aspects of non-Jewish labor migration in Israel by focusing on undocumented labor migrants from Latin American countries as a case study. More specifically, we want to analyze the 'push and pull' factors that are attracting Latino labor migration to the Holy Land,as well as the emergence of a new ethnic community in the city of Tel Aviv. Our purpose is to portray the process of Latino labor migration to Israel according to the theoretical framework provided by the different approaches to international migration [1] This paper proceeds as follows. After providing an overview of the origins and development of non- Jewish labor migration in Israel (section II), we present the theoretical background against which the data will be analyzed (section III) and the methodology of the research (section IV). In section V we examine the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of Latino labor migrants in their country of origin (before migration) and in Israel. We present a preliminary description of the immigrants' incorporation into the Israeli labor market by emphasizing the process of informal recruitment, as well as the occupational cost that these immigrants pay upon migration. Acknowledging that gender structures the migratory process, we analyze how the foregoing set of dimensions varies according to gender [2] Lastly, we describe the emergent non-Jewish Latino community in Tel Aviv [3] The Israeli Setting Israel is a nation of immigrants inhabited by Jews from practically every country in the world. Unlike other receiving societies, Israel is committed to the successful absorption of its (Jewish) immigrants, and it actively encourages the immigration of Jews. The Israeli Law of Nationality, which came into force in 1952, complemented the Law of Return from 1950. The latter, based on the jus sanguinis principle, gives Jews --and only Jews-- everywhere the right to immigrate, while the former grants them, almost automatically, Israeli nationality. At the same time, Israel is an ethnically divided society composed of approximately 83 percent Jews and 17 percent non-Jews (Arab inhabitants), who, although legally considered equal citizens, in fact constitute a subordinate social, political, and national minority (Smooha,1992). Israel, therefore, can be viewed as an immigrant-settler society based on an ethno-nationalist structure, and defined both ideologically and institutionally. After the 1967 war, the government gradually began recruiting non-citizen Palestinian workers from the West Bank and Gaza strip to perform mostly menial, low-status jobs in the Israeli labor market (Semyonov and Lewin-Epstein, 1987; Weisberg, 1992). They met the definition of day-labor commuters, entering the country by day and leaving at night. The number of non-citizen Palestinian