Household structure of recent immigrants to Israel

The change in household structure is a worldwide phenomenon that reflects demographic changes, social and cultural trends, and changing economic conditions. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the prevalence of multigenerational households among recent immigrants from Eastern Europe to Israel. The size of the household among these immigrants is smaller, on average, than the household size among native-Israelis, even though immigrants have a higher tendency to live in extended households. Our analysis shows that the share of multigenerational households declines with duration in Israel among young immigrants, but not so much among elder immigrants who arrived at older age. This difference may reflect the better economic integration of younger immigrants in the local labor market and the lower attachment of younger immigrants to cultural habits that existed in the origin country. In addition, there is a great similarity in the prevalence of multigenerational households between cohorts suggesting that immigrants, presumably, do not form a multigenerational household in Israel in order to provide them with a social anchor, but rather to help them overcome economic constraints upon arrival.