Outmigration from a Development Town in Israel

Outmigration from a Development Town in Israel SAGE Publications, Inc.1979DOI: 10.1177/002071527902000306 Chaya Zuckerman-Bareli Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel Outmigration from a Development Town in Israel THIS ARTICLE studies the problem of outmigration from an Israeli "development town" which suffers an additional handicap by virtue of its being situated on the Northern frontier (of Israel). This border has witnessed many terrorist attacks in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Some of the raids were actually experienced by the inhabitants of the town studied. In using the term "development town" we refer to the townships devised and planned by the state on the basis of economic, military and settlement policy considerations. Many of these "development towns", among them the town under scrutiny, were established in the early '50's and their establishment had the overriding aim of absorbing the masses of Oriental Jewish immigrants who settled in Israel during that period. In order to make these towns viable, in terms of modern industrial society, the government policy has been one of attracting professional people and investors interested in establishing industrial plants by means of special financial benefits. The main question to be analysed here, and one which some development towns and the Government have been facing, is whether development towns situated on insecure borders have the potential to retain their populations, especially those sections comprising the younger age-groups and the professionally qualified people, without whose contributions the fuller development of these towns is bound to be retarded. Consequently, the rate of outmigration becomes an...