A sharp drop was registered in immigration from France in the last months. Dr. Dov Maimon explains the reasons for this.
French immigration to Israel was down even more sharply in the last quarter. According to the Jewish Agency figures, only 178 Jews immigrated to Israel from France in the first three months of the year, a tumble of nearly two-thirds.
Dr. Dov Maimon, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute who specializes in French aliyah, attributed this downturn to what he called Israel’s prohibitively high cost of living as well as the uncertainty surrounding the planned judicial overhaul and the accompanying protests. “The key factors that once drove French aliyah were a weak local economy and antisemitism,” he noted.
He adds, “Those problems persist and have even gotten worse, But the reason they’re not generating more aliyah is that Israel has less pull these days.”
For the full article in Haaretz, click here.