The cost of separation: educational policy and its lasting impact on ethiopian-israeli youth

While Israel officially promoted the integration of Ethiopian immigrant children in its schools during the 1980s and 1990s, this paper demonstrates how the actual educational practices led to segregation. It argues that the placement of immigrant children in separate "absorption classes" was not merely a policy error but a deliberate strategy that benefited absorption organizations through increased budgets and institutional power. These organizations justified segregation by citing "cultural differences", effectively shifting the blame for educational failures onto the immigrants' cultural background rather than addressing systemic issues. Drawing from a year-long field study at an absorption center housing 300 Ethiopian immigrants during the first immigration wave in the 1980s, the study presents case examples of discrimination and exclusion. As a volunteer assistant to the cultural officer, the author witnessed firsthand how bureaucratic structures created power imbalances and marginalized immigrant children as outsiders. The segregation policy had far-reaching consequences: Ethiopian immigrant children faced educational struggles and persistent stigmatization. Using data from the Central Bureau of Statistics and other formal sources, the study shows that early segregation practices contributed to lower rates of higher education attainment among Ethiopian-Israelis, underlining the lasting impact of these discriminatory policies.