INTEGRATION AND ASSIMILATION OF MOROCCAN IMMIGRANTS IN ISRAEL AND THENETHERLANDS

The purpose of this study,vas to examine the consequences of integrati on and assimilation of Jewish Moroccans in Israel and Islamic Moroccan s in The Netherlands as well as the reactions of the majority group to these immigrants. On the basis of social identity theory and the simi larity-attraction hypothesis, we predicted tint immigrants who integra te would experience more prejudice and would feel less respected, but would evaluate their ethnicity, more positively than immigrants who as similate. We also predicted that majority members would prefer and sho w less prejudice towards assimilating immigrants than they would to in tegrating immigrants. Since Moroccans in Israel share a Jewish? backgr ound with the dominant group, we expected a more e favorable pattern i ii Israel than in The Netherlands. Respondents were 94 Moroccans in Th e Netherlands and 97 in Israel, further 86 subjects of the dominant gr oup in The Netherlands and 78 in Israel. The results generally confirm ? the predictions. Remarkably, whereas majority members in The Netherl ands clearly react more positively towards assimilating immigrants ts than towards integrating immigrants, in Israel it made little differen ce,whether they assimilated or integrated. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science L td. All rights reserved.