From: nobby@milton.u.washington.edu (Vitaly Shmatikov)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Israel and the diaspora
Date: 10 Nov 92 23:31:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Nov10.233158.29177
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

In article <1992Nov10.172741.20297@cbnewsl.cb.att.com> sethr@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (seth.r.rosenthal) writes:
>In article <BxIDIM.JF1@encore.com>, amarkel@encore.com (Arieh Markel) writes:
>> nobby@milton.u.washington.edu (Vitaly Shmatikov) writes:
>> 
>> >In article <BxHqCx.KF5@cs.columbia.edu> ratner@cs.columbia.edu (Michael Ratner) writes:
>> >>In article <1992Nov7.234200.8473@ennews.eas.asu.edu> makowsky@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (David Makowsky) writes:
>> >>>In article <92312.0400382893684@QUCDN.QueensU.CA> andy <2893684@QUCDN.QueensU.CA> writes:
>> >>>
>> >>># In article <4428@bimacs.BITNET>, rothberg@bimacs.BITNET (Danny Rothenberg) says:
>> 

[... stuff deleted ...]

>
>I am not sure about Soviet citizenship, but in order to apply
>to leave they needed a letter of invitation from somewhere.  Israeli
>letters were sent routinely whether there was a family or not there.
>Once they got to Rome or Vienna they would revoke their status with
>Israel and re-apply to the U.S.   When the procedures changed,
>and application made directly in Moscow with direct flights,
>this could no longer be done.  The choice was, file for status in the
>US, if rejected one could either go to Israel, or try somewhere in
>Western Europe.  Germany was a pretty inviting place because of its
>booming economy.  Today, perhaps France or Italy, but given what's
>going on in France, thats no bargain either.  This was the net effect
>of the immigration policy.

I never heard of France or Italy accepting or even intending to
accept any Soviet Jews.

>
>Russian emigre's here do tend to collect their families.  Russian
>Jews can come here with immigrant status, but then they don't have
>refugee status, and it is harder for them to survive since there
>are a few months of benefits for refugees that don't come to immigrants.
>
>The US quota applies to all citizens of the Russian republic by the way.
>Russian Evangelical Christians still emigrate as
>do Armenians.  The 50,000 spots therefore have quite a bit of
>competition for them.  I don't know the exact numbers, but I would
>guess that only 35,000 spots wind up being used by Jews.
>

Far less. First of all, in the past year only about 38,000 out
of 50,000 exercised their status. By my estimate, the percentage of
Jews among these 38,000 barely exceed 50-60%. Here in Seattle almost 
all newcomers are Pentacostals or Ukranian Catholics (Uniates). 
In Providence, RI where I happened to live Jews still constitute 
a majority among the new immigrants but the proportion is rapidly 
changing.

>
>> >Just a small correction. It's not true that only those with direct relatives 
>> >in the U.S. can obtain refugee status. My family has no direct relatives here 
>> >but we still got admitted. Sometimes I'm wondering what drives American 
>> >immigration officials when they're considering applications of Soviet Jews.
>> >The process is apparently informal but I have hard time trying to figure
>> >out which factors count.
>> 
>> As far as I know, my mother's family was not admitted to the US in 1938,
>> when trying to flee Austria because not all members could claim direct
>> relatives. Luckily, those who managed to escape were able to reach
>> Argentina.
>> 
>
>Almost all Jews in Europe had cousins or aunts and uncles in the States
>in 1938.  Our cousins applied to emigrate from Poland in 1936, and were
>given approval, for 1943.  That is how far backed up the visa requests
>were.  Of course by 1943 10 out of 13 of the children in that family
>were gone.
>

I don't know about 1938 but nowadays INS most definitely does *not*
consider aunts and uncles to be direct relatives.

>
>		Seth Rosenthal
>
>Disclaimer: All opinions are my own not my employers'.

Nobby
nobby@u.washington.edu