עולי שנות ה-90 מבריה"מ לשעבר: זרם והשפעות חיצוניות

This article addresses two main questions: a. How a new immigrant chooses a specific location? and b. Does the decision affect the level of absorption success? To answer the first question we examined different causes focusing on two alternative explanations of immigrant clustering: (1) Network externalities (2) Herd behavior. To analyze this question, a look is taken at immigration to Israel from the former Soviet Union during the 1990's. We show that the choice of location is affected both by herd behavior and network externalities. Moreover, network externalities have an inverse U shape on the choice of location. Thus, earlier immigrants affect the probability of immigration to a specific place in a positive way. Migrants coming later have a negative affect. Herd behavior, on the other hand, affects the choice of location positively. The absorption success is defined in terms of employment and the living environment. Immigrants, that followed the herd, were absorbed better and more easily than others. The success probability has an inverse with regard to the number of immigrants in a certain location.