Why Netanyahu Wants European Jews to Move to Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial call for European Jews to move to Israel generated a storm of media attention. But one glaring reason for Netanyahu's comments remains outside the bounds of media hounds: Israelis aren't reproducing themselves.
A recent article in Bloomberg illustrates the point. It focuses on the experiences of immigrants from Europe and Russia (really the former Soviet Union). The impression you get is that if more immigrants stayed in Israeli, rather than exiting after a few years things would be better. It specifies why people don't stay:
But what's astounding about all this is how the subject of low birth rates - in this case the birth rates of Israelis - somehow never makes it to center stage in these discussions. Why? Is the concept so hard to understand? Not really. Israeli's aren't producing enough children to replace themselves over time. Therefore the population of Jews in Israel will decline. Isn't that a big deal? And would it be so hard to imagine Netanyahu seizing an opportunity to increase his population if he has the slightest inkling of inkling of what it will mean to Israel when their population begins to significantly decrease, surrounded as they are by hostile forces?
What seems to be going on here is what's going on the rest of the developed world: denial. People rarely talk about the declining birth rates in the first world. When they do, the discussion is brief and quickly shunted aside. But, really, it's perhaps the elephant in the room that explains so much of what's going on around us - the call to European Jews being only a small, albeit the latest, example.
A recent article in Bloomberg illustrates the point. It focuses on the experiences of immigrants from Europe and Russia (really the former Soviet Union). The impression you get is that if more immigrants stayed in Israeli, rather than exiting after a few years things would be better. It specifies why people don't stay:
"A lot of people come to Israel with shining ideas in their heads, and they find the country's not like that. It's expensive, and Israel is a pretty rough, highly competitive environment." That can be especially true for Western Europeans accustomed to generous social protections.Interestingly, the article recognizes this:
About 7,100 people emigrate annually, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the country's population of 8 million, according to the most recent data from Israel's central statistics bureau.These statistics noted in the article tell us that the impact of immigrants is de minimis, yet the article focuses on how some percentage of these immigrants turn around and leave again - as if their leaving has some significant impact. You can't have it both ways. If the impact of immigrants is tiny, then half of them leaving will be, logically, half as tiny.
But what's astounding about all this is how the subject of low birth rates - in this case the birth rates of Israelis - somehow never makes it to center stage in these discussions. Why? Is the concept so hard to understand? Not really. Israeli's aren't producing enough children to replace themselves over time. Therefore the population of Jews in Israel will decline. Isn't that a big deal? And would it be so hard to imagine Netanyahu seizing an opportunity to increase his population if he has the slightest inkling of inkling of what it will mean to Israel when their population begins to significantly decrease, surrounded as they are by hostile forces?
What seems to be going on here is what's going on the rest of the developed world: denial. People rarely talk about the declining birth rates in the first world. When they do, the discussion is brief and quickly shunted aside. But, really, it's perhaps the elephant in the room that explains so much of what's going on around us - the call to European Jews being only a small, albeit the latest, example.
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