Risk Complexity—Culture and Identity in Migration: The Case of Ethiopian Jews: The Case of Ethiopian Jews

This chapter is based on three different qualitative studies on the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel and their shared findings regarding issues of identity, transition, risk and resilience. We start with discussing the complex, dynamic process of identity formation among Israelis of Ethiopian origin, forged out of life circumstances and the social-cultural-political environment in which they live—their “here and now” reality. We begin with a brief background on the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel, followed by an explanation of our studies. We then proceed to discuss culture and identity in immigration, the viability of a hybrid or bicultural identity and ambivalent identities, illustrated by the example of the immigrant’s journey to Israel via Sudan as a formative experience. We then continue by pointing to identity and immigration as factors in risk or resilience, following immigration and the issue of skin color. Lastly, we discuss differences between first, second and one-and-a-half generation immigrants, and the consequences of public policy and the “risk industry” on the immigrants’ experiences