Successful Adaptation of Immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Project Renewal Neighborhoods: The Influential Factors

Abstract

Migration has been an international phenomenon fbr centuries. The widespread trend toward migration in recent years has resulted in efforts to examine the factors involved in the adaptation of immigrants to life in the host country. This study examines the factors that effect immigrant adaptation and integration in urban neighborhoods in Israel that are undergoing a process of rehabilitation. Adaptation is defined by the variables: contact with neighbors, participation in community activities, sense of belonging to the community and well-being. These mediator and dependent variables were found to be directly effected by home and host related variables. These variables were not found to directly effect well-being. Proximity of family and ability to converse in Hebrew were found to have an indirect effect on well-being, constructed using community variables, which themselves directly effect well-being. The discussion of the findings refers both to Project Renewal for the Rehabilitation of Neighborhoods, and the role of professional community workers as planners and movers in the neighborhoods incorpororated in the project.