CEU eTD Collection (2014); Váczi, Gergő: In-Betweenness: Is Hungarian Aliyah a Migration Phenomenon?

CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
Author Váczi, Gergő
Title In-Betweenness: Is Hungarian Aliyah a Migration Phenomenon?
Summary Literature on Hungarian Jewry has generally agreed that Jewish Hungarians have not played a large part in the ethnic return migration to Israel, with the result that Hungarian aliyah has not received the attention it deserves. However, in recent years, in parallel to the Hungarian ‘mass migration’ to Western countries, the number of those who have decided to move to Israel has increased. The aim of this thesis is to consider why the number of olim has been increasing since 2007 and why these migrants have chosen Israel. To give a general overview of the Hungarian aliyah, I have used social historical and statistical sources and I also conducted an interview with an employee of Szochnut, the Central European branch of the Jewish Agency for Israel. My empirical findings are based upon ten semi-structured interviews conducted in Israel in April 2014 with Hungarian olim. In this thesis I will argue that the Hungarian migration to Israel is a part of larger migration patterns, therefore Hungarian aliyah should be studied within the larger context of emigration from Hungary and immigration to Israel. I will also argue that although the decision to make aliyah is closely related to identity and ideology, these in themselves are not sufficient to make the final decision, as there are many other factors that play a crucial part in the decision-making. My findings are echoing almost all of the theories about aliyah and as the decision is rather complex, we can hardly fit it into one single theory of diasporic return migration to Israel.
Supervisor Monterescu, Daniel
Department Sociology MA
Full texthttps://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/vaczi_gergo.pdf

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