“They keep speaking Russian as if they never left Russia or Ukraine—as if Israel is one of the Soviet republics, or its remote cultural province... Kind of a Big Brother attitude you know... They deem themselves as ‘cultured Europeans’ while we are ‘primitive Asians’... If they look down at us then why indeed should they try and switch into Hebrew?” Liora, Israeli-born senior lab technician
Abstract
Workplace is the main site of the cross-cultural encounter between majority and minority groups in multicultural societies, yet there is paucity of research on workplace language practices and their influence on the social relations of work. The current qualitative study focused on the patterns of language use and their links to social identities, inter-group attitudes and work relations between recent immigrants and veteran employees in a white-collar organization in Central Israel. On-site observations and interviews with the workers—Israeli-born, veteran Soviet immigrants of the 1970s, and recent arrivals—were conducted in Hebrew and in Russian. The findings indicate that language use indeed serves as the key marker of social identity and signifier of work status and group boundaries. The common use of Russian by recent immigrants is a trigger of conflict and mutual antagonism, as Hebrew-speakers perceive it as a sign of their separatism and anti-Israeli outlook.
Résumé
Dans les sociétés multiculturelles, les rencontres interculturelles entre les membres de la majorité et ceux des groupes minoritaires se produisent principalement en milieu de travail. Pourtant, peu de recherches ont été entreprises pour connaître les pratiques linguistiques dans ces milieux et leur influence sur les relations sociales. Cette étude qualitative a porté sur les modèles globaux de l’usage linguistique et leur rapport aux identités sociales, aux attitudes intergroupes et aux relations de travail entre de nouveaux immigrants et des employés chevronnés au sein d’un organisme de col blanc en Israël central. Nous avons fait des observations sur les lieux et des entrevues en hébreu et en russe avec les travailleurs—certains nés en Israël d’immigrants soviétiques des années 1970, d’autres récemment arrivés. Les résultats indiquent que les pratiques linguistiques servent effectivement de marqueurs d’identité sociale, de situation relative à l’emploi et de frontières intergroupes. L’emploi du russe par les immigrants nouvellement arrivés est un élément déclencheur de conflits et d’antagonisme mutuel, les locuteurs hébreux percevant cette pratique comme une manifestation d’une attitude séparatiste et anti-israélienne.
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Remennick, L. Resetting the rules of the game: Language preferences and social relations of work between Russian immigrants and veteran professionals in an Israeli organization. Int. Migration & Integration 6, 1–28 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-005-1000-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-005-1000-y