Paths to Middle-Class Mobility among Second-Generation Moroccan Immigrant Women in Israel

5. Acquiring Educational Credentials

67 C h a p t e r 5 Acquiring Educational Credentials Sara, who is forty-seven years old, belongs to the largest group (20 percent) of second-generation Moroccan women in the middle class: those who are clerical workers. She represents high-ranking secretaries in the middle segment of the middle class. She works in the Municipal civil service in Jerusalem and invited me to her office at the Municipality for our meetings. At her initial interview, she greeted me with a warm smile and offered me coffee and Moroccan cookies she had baked especially for our meeting. She began telling me about herself by talking about the importance of her ethnic feminine identity: I am proud to be a Moroccan woman, I am happy about it. My being a woman and my being a Moroccan are inseparable. I don’t feel discriminated against. I think that discrimination depends very much upon the person—what she projects to her surroundings . From the first day that I can remember myself, I never went anywhere and felt that I was being discriminated against, or that I didn’t get what I deserve because I am Moroccan. On the contrary, I think that because I am a Moroccan woman, people treat me well. When I hear people talking about discrimination today, people say that there is less discrimination than there used to be. But people still live the past because in the past there was so much of it. Moroccans are proud people, but when they came to Israel they found themselves inferior, and the feeling of inferiority stayed with them. Perhaps that explains their bitterness. But today you find some Moroccans in high places. Moroccans see that and slowly they will feel that there is less discrimination. 68 C H A P T E R 5 Furthermore, Sara thinks that a positive stereotype exists about Moroccan women: “When people ask me where I come from, I always say, “I am Moroccan .” And when I say that, what runs through my mind are all the good things about being a Moroccan woman. When people know that I am Moroccan , they know that I know how to cook, to bake, how to run my home well. A Moroccan woman will never neglect her home.” Sara attributed her attachment to her ethnic culture to her socialization through which her mother transmitted Moroccan culture to her daughter: I am the daughter of traditional Moroccan parents and everything that characterizes Moroccans. I come from a closed Moroccan home—a home that was closed to outside influences. In my childhood I learned a great deal about what it means to be a Moroccan woman and about Moroccan culture. My mother kept what is called an “open house”—like all Moroccan women she prided herself on her hospitality. She celebrated all the religious holidays by inviting people and serving all the special Moroccan food that is customary on holidays. My mother placed a lot of emphasis on celebrating holidays according to Moroccan tradition, and I live the tradition all the time. I like preparing Moroccan food, especially for the holidays and for guests. And it is very important to me to cook all the Moroccan food my mother cooked. That includes the cooking , making jams, the special cakes. I also bake Moroccan cookies for other people and give them at special occasions, like a Henna, the Moroccan engagement party. I was always excited by Moroccan tradition. I know that I am different that way—that lots of Moroccan women my age today don’t care about preserving Moroccan culture as much as I do. But it is important to me because when I look around I see that the special Moroccan culture is disappearing and I want to continue it. I don’t want to see it disappear. I learned it all from my mother and I have taught my daughters so I hope that they will continue what I have passed on to them. However, Sara thought that being the daughter of Moroccan immigrants has been an obstacle to her acquiring the formal educational credentials necessary for her to continue her upward mobility within the civil service, and hence her class mobility. As the daughter of immigrants, she was expected to help support her family. This required her to drop out of high school: 69 Acquiring Educational Credentials After my parents immigrated to Israel, my...