이스라엘의 사회적 통합, 그 과제와 교훈

Israeli Social Integration: Problems and Lessons

Israel is composed of immigrants from across the world and descendants of Palestinian Arabs who remained in the Palestine territory after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Therefore, the Israeli government established the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption and has made great efforts to integrate these people. Nevertheless, Jews from the Middle East and North Africa (Mizrahim) and Arabs have both been discriminated against by the social dominants, i.e., Jews from Europe (Ashkenazim). Compared to Ashkenazim, Mizrahim and Arabs are living in poor resistant conditions getting low wages; and have lower college enrollment rates and worse health conditions. However, affluent Ashkenazim are satisfied with their dominance in society with the benefits of their advantageous situation. This intolerance and disconnection indicate that a policy-only approach is not effective. These phenomena provide a cautionary lesson to South Korea, which is now becoming a multiethnic country and anticipating a need for unification in the near future. While South Korea needs to implement detailed policies to address the needs of disadvantaged groups such as ethnic minorities and North Korean defectors, the country also needs to enlighten the general public about the importance of social integration.