Population Dispersal Policy and the 1990s Immigration Wave

The article examines whether policymakers were successful in taking advantage of the massive immigration of the 1990s to meet the demographic objectives laid out in Israel's long-standing population dispersal policy. This policy has been one of the most consistent in Israel's history, endorsed by every government since the State's establishment. Population dispersal policy has been a key component of security, housing, economic, and land-use policy for more than sixty years. As in the 1950s and 1960s, the massive influx of one million immigrants from the former Soviet Union provided a unique opportunity to realize this policy's goals. This work examines the degree to which that opportunity was utilized through analyses of policy implementation and demographic change during and after the 1990s immigration wave.