A Growing Country With a Growing Immigrant Population – One Generation To the Next
Since its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel’s population has flourished greatly, in part due to the number of immigrants it has attracted from all over the world. To this day, Jews of diverse cultural and national backgrounds move to their holy land to build a home or find sanction in Israel , having lived most of their lives in exile, often subject to antisemitism or a lack of belonging and freedom to live Jewish lives day in and out. The first generations of immigrants who built and developed the country in its early stages came from all corners of the world, including Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, and North America.
With the popularity of programs that subsidize free visits to Israel over the last few decades, (designed to increase exposure to those with Jewish roots to their homeland, while also allowing them to build a connection with the country), alongside the rise of antisemitism in various parts of the world, nations struggling from political mayhem, economic crisis, and plummeting employment rates, there has indeed been an influx in immigration to Israel.
What Are Statistics Telling Us? Immigration Numbers in 2019 Are Impressive.
An article in Israeli publication Haaretz indicates that over the last decade, total immigration numbers have near doubled from 15,500 in 2008 to 29,500 in 2018, with a large percentage of these numbers attributed to immigrants arriving from Russia and the Ukraine.
With Israel offering sanctuary, employment, support and improved quality of life on various grounds to much of its immigrant population, (from the country’s absorption packages, to employment opportunities in fields like high tech, medicine, education, entrepreneurship, marketing and much more), to its cultural diversity and accessibility to language and professional training, it’s no wonder that 20,506 new immigrants arrived in Israel within the first seven months of 2019. Even more impressive is the 21% increase this 2019 statistic presents when compared to this period in 2018. Plus, emigration numbers have also dropped, as the aforementioned source states, “The annual emigration rate in 2017, the Central Bureau of Statistics reports (the number of Israelis not returning from abroad for more than a year) fell to 14,300 – the smallest number since 2010.”
The Demand for Translation: Immigration Processes, Taxation, & Professions
The South African Zionist Federation in Israel website presents a guided list of documents most immigrants to Israel will be required to present in making their initial move or return to Israel, clearly noting, “All documents presented to the Ministry of Education must be translated either in Hebrew or English by an Israeli notary (if the original documents are not in English or in Russian.” While Israel’s rising immigration numbers have been deemed heavily due to Russian and English speaking countries, there are those arriving from Western Europe, Asia, Africa and other parts of the world. Those who wish to practice medicine, law, teach or simply immigrate with ease will inevitably depend on the services of licensed legal translators for certificates and documents that require verification and validation locally.
According to the Israeli Ministry of Interior Immigration policies and requirements, some of the basic document requirements that may demand licensed legal translation in immigrating to Israel from specific countries of origin include:
- Birth, marriage or divorce certificates
- Documents confirming an immigrant’s Judaism issued by recognized religious bodies or authorities, like a rabbi or community organizations from country of origin.
- Certification of good conduct depending on your country of origin.
As noted above, professional certifications will often require notarized, licensed and localized translation, like those immigrating and looking to continue their practice in fields like medicine and education. Immigrants coming from countries like the United States and maintaining registered businesses in Israel may be required to pay taxes in both countries, and may require the services of legal translators to provide local taxation status and updates to the IRA and relevant U.S. tax authorities.
The Israeli government itself also employs the services of licensed legal translators to support professionals immigrating to Israel, offering subsidized translation services to authors that have written in their native language and offer messages and literature worth sharing with local Hebrew readers.
We can essentially assume that provided Israel’s immigrant population continues to grow, and existing immigrants build new Israeli families and expand the country’s population, there will continue to be an ongoing need for legal, localized and licensed translation services.
Dray Translations specializes in providing precise, localized and licensed legal translation services.
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