INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES IN PRACTICAL INTELLIGENCE AND SUCCESS IN IMMIGRATION

The paper presents a theoretical overview of the relationship between nonacademic aspects of intelligence and success in immigrating to a ne w country. An empirical study is then presented that relates measures of practical intelligence and tacit knowledge to success at work crite ria. Sixty-five scientists who emigrated from the former USSR to Israe l participated in this study. Self-reported indices of practical intel ligence and external indices of tacit knowledge (collected via structu red interviews and supervisors' ratings) were correlated with ratings of success at research and development jobs. Correlations were found t o be in the range of .07 to .60, most of them statistically significan t. This supports our hypothesis that a higher level of practical intel ligence correlates positively with more successful adaptation to life in the new country. Contrary to previous writings, which have approach ed the issues of immigration from a group-oriented perspective, this p aper emphasizes the intelligence of the individual immigrant and propo ses that this factor is a major determinant of immigration success.