...2001). cross-cultural encounter between immigrant professionals and their local peers can significantly influence work relations in organizations, providing a fascinating scene for social research. So far, most studies of immigrant employment have been demographic or macro-economic, focusing on structural issues such as un/underemployment, distribution by industry, work terms and wages, and the influence on the host country's job market (Wilson and Jaynes 2000; De Jong and Madamba 2001). Some researches have addressed employer attitudes, hiring policies, and ethnic prejudice in the workplace, with passing attention to cross-cultural work relations (Montreuil and Bourhis, 2001; Shih 2002).

Recent publications that come closer to focusing on work relations between immigrants and non-immigrant workers include an edited volume on diversity and inter-group relations in a changing workplace (Chemers, Oskamp, and Constanzo, 1995) and several studies on the role of informal co-ethnic networking in occupational adjustment (Dong and Salaff 2000; Elliott 2001). Several researchers took issue with the language rights of minority workers and bilingualism in the workplace (McGroarty 1990; Parliman and Shoeman 1994; Macias 1997; Aguirre 2003). The latter two studies are organizational ethnographies that show the central role of language use as determinant of worker status and mobility in diverse American workplaces and make a strong case against English-only workplace policy. However, most of these studies were staged in the lower tiers of the occupational pyramid, i.e., industrial settings employing unskilled or semi-skilled immigrants. There has been surprisingly little research that has explored social relations of work outside the blue- and pink-collar sector, i.e., among immigrant professionals (Chen 1996; Bagchi 1999; Boyd 2000).

Perhaps this lacuna reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, lying between sociology of immigration, work and organizations, and crosscultural relations. Each discipline has its own perspective on host-immigrant interactions in the workplace. Migration scholars interested in immigrant professionals have shown that their occupational integration is the main venue of insertion in the host society because it is conducive to upward social mobility, rising living standards, and professional and social contact with local peers (Vinokurov, Birmann, and Trickett 2000; Remennick 2002, 2003a, b: Remennick and Shakhar 2003). For educated immigrants, the ability to reconnect with their professional milieu is a strong booster of positive identification with the host society and perhaps the key measure of success in their migration venture. From the standpoint of organizational research, group interactions between ethno-cultural majority and minority workers is an important dimension of organizational culture and human relations, a factor in worker commitment and job distress and, eventually, in general efficacy and productivity (Chemers et al. 1995; Bond and Pyle 1998; Dutton 1998). For cross-cultural sociology and social psychology, inter-group interactions in the workplace are of interest as an expression of macro-level ethnic relations, with the concomitant mutual stereotypes, tensions, and conflict resolution techniques (Prentice and Miller 1999; Amason, Allen, and Holmes 1999; Montreuil and Bourhis 2001).

In Israel this issue is especially current, because the presence of Russian-speaking workers and professionals is dense in almost every workplace, reflecting the mass immigration wave of the 1990s from the former Soviet Union (FSU). Despite a strong emphasis on immigrants' occupational adjustment in Israeli social policy and a variety of programs tailored to assist specific professional groups, there was surprisingly little follow-up research on the qualitative side of their employment. A few surveys of immigrant economic adjustment, sponsored by the state agencies in the mid-1990s, reported on socio-demographic characteristics of immigrant workers, types of employment, wages, and other macro-economic parameters (Naveh, Noam, and Benita 1995; Raijman and Semyonov 1998; Sicron 1998; Stier and Levanon 2003). Other macro-level studies focused on specific professions such as doctors (Bernstein and Shuval 1998; Nirel 1999), engineers (Naveh and King 1995), and scientists (Toren 1996), again, looking mainly into quantitative patterns of employment. job mobility and satisfaction. I found no trace of qualitative research into organizational culture/behavior centered on the daily interactions between veteran Israeli workers and recent immigrants from the FSU. Yet their impact on every Israeli organization must be very substantial because of their sheer numbers (e.g., over 40 percent of the Israeli hi-tech industry personnel are "Russians" (Remennick 2003b), as well as differential professional and cultural characteristics.

To start filling this gap, the current qualitative study tried to integrate the described research perspectives, looking into work relations and their underlying mechanisms (such as mutual stereotypes) between long-time Israeli residents and recent immigrants from the FSU in the context of a medical organization. Before describing the study, some background on Russian immigrants and their employment situation may be useful.

Immigrant Employment Patterns in Israel

The last immigration wave to Israel, set in motion in the late 1980s by the demise of the FSU, was the largest single population influx in the country's history, increasing the number of Israeli Jews by 20 percent (CBS 2002). Among former Soviet Jews about 60 percent have academic degrees and a professional or white-collar background. The numbers of newly arrived immigrant professionals often exceeded the ranks of their Israeli colleagues (e.g., about 15,000 physicians joined similar number of local practitioners; 82,000 engineers were added to some 30,000 of Israeli engineers, etc.) and could not be accommodated by the small and saturated marketplace (IMIA 1998). Despite governmental programs designed to help the newcomers receive Israeli accreditation or retrain in related occupations, the majority of Russian immigrants could not find professional posts and soon found themselves in the semi-skilled or unskilled occupational tiers. Besides their sheer excess, Soviet-trained professionals often lacked the technical and social skills needed on the Western market (command of English, computer literacy, self-marketing, etc.), which further hampered their prospects. Validation of former Soviet professional credentials posed another problem for many specialists, often calling for retraining and/or licensure exams (Lerner and Menachem 2003). Attesting to the presence of these barriers, roughly one-third of academic degree holders among the recent arrivals worked in their old or related occupation, while two-thirds made their living by unskilled work. Older and female professionals were especially disadvantaged on the gender- and age-structured professional market of Israel, with unemployment rates two to three times higher than those of their younger and male counterparts (Raijman and Semyonov 1998; Stier and Levanon 2003). Some professional groups were more successful than others: Russian software and electronic engineers have greatly contributed to the Israeli hi-tech boom of the late 1990s (Remennick 2003b); thousands of immigrant doctors and nurses became an indispensable part of the Israeli medical system (Sicron 1998).

Today, over half of all health care workers in Israel are recent Russian immigrants (MOH 2003), with an ensuing structural (e.g., in terms of feminization) and cultural impact on the medical profession. Although this setting is fascinating for social research, few such studies were attempted, partly because they require interdisciplinary vision and cross-cultural skills (including the knowledge of both Hebrew and Russian languages). The first in-depth investigation of the encounter between local and immigrant professionals on the medical scene was our ethnographic study among Russian immigrant MDs (Remennick and Shtarkshall 1997) showing that they had a difficult time adjusting to the dominance of modern technology over classic clinical skills and the negative stereotypes from both their local colleagues and patients. In another recent study, we have explored the experiences of former Soviet doctors who chose to convert to physiotherapy, trading higher professional status for stable jobs and secure paramedical jobs (Remennick and Shakhar 2003).

The current study follows in the path of my prior research on Russian immigrant professionals, this time with the focus on work relations between them and their local co-workers. The principal research questions were: 1) How do the differences in education, work status, and experience affect work relations between recent immigrants and Israeli-trained staff? 2) How do the parties perceive each other's work ethic and job commitment? 3) Are there any informal social relationships between immigrants and old-timers at work and beyond? 4) What is the role of Russian language use in the workplace as a potential trigger of inter-group tension?

Theoretical Approach

Given the inter-disciplinary nature of my research questions, it was not easy to adopt a single theoretical perspective. Moreover, as this study was informed by the qualitative-interpretative paradigm (Strauss and Corbin 1989), we tended to look for theoretical insights ensuing from empirical data and not to impose rigid explanatory frames in advance. With these caveats, perhaps the most relevant lens for viewing our data is offered by the literature on ethnic attitudes and stereotypes (Prentice and Miller 1999; Montreuil and Bourhis 2001) and how they play out in real-life inter-group contexts. In pluralistic societies, members of various social sectors or communities create and maintain fixed sets of beliefs about traits and behaviors typical for their own group versus others (minorities, immigrants). Hegemonic groups with a higher social status usually construct their own image along positive lines, while minority members are ascribed a more negative set of features. These images enter an everyday cultural discourse via humor, cinema, fiction, and mass media and are gradually internalized by a broad public, often including minority members themselves. Inter-group stereotypes often embrace not only traits and practices but also values attributed to another group, thus defining the "moral location" of minorities as close to, or distant from, the dominant majority values. This, in turn, predicts the levels of mutual prejudice, hostility, and conflict between group members (Bond 1986; Spears et al. 1997; Austers 2002). Studies of inter-group interactions show that popular stereotypes may be either enhanced or weakened as a result of personal contact with members of the "other" group, depending on the context of this encounter and power relations between the group members. When actors from different ethnic or cultural camps are endowed with similar statuses and social distance between them is insignificant, when they have tools for effective communication (i.e., common language) and are not involved in direct competition for limited resources, the encounter is more likely to dispel prejudice and breed mutual acceptance (Bond 1986; Fiske 1993; Spears et al. 1997).

Israeli researchers have shown that despite many years of social mingling between Jews of different ethnic origin in all venues of life, most Israelis maintain a stable set of cliches and prejudices based on ethno-cultural stereotypes of various groups of Jews (let alone attitudes towards Palestinians that merit a separate discussion) (Bar-Tal 1997). As a stable element of popular cultural menu, these stereotypes affect both daily interactions and macro-level power relations between various ethnic groups, as well as between recent immigrants...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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