Temporary migration of Palestinian students to the former USSR: motivations, conflicts and impact

ABSTRACT

The article traces Palestinian Arab graduates in Israel, who acquired HE in the former USSR. The article clarifies the unique contribution of these studies to social, economic and political aspects of Palestinian Arab society in Israel. Qualitative methodology was employed, eliciting data from semi-structured interviews with 20 Palestinian Arab graduates, selected by ‘snowball’ method to represent two generations of students that migrated temporarily to the USSR for their studies. The findings indicate that the financial factor was a decisive motivator to study in the former USSR.As active communist party members, they received full scholarships for USSR universities. A ‘push’ factor was that the difficulty involved in gaining acceptance for prestigious disciplines in Israeli universities, free professions desiredby Palestinian students from Israel to free them from reliance on Israeli establishment employment. On graduation, the students returned to Israel, where they underwent a re-integration into a traditional Arab society that had hardly altered since they left. It is concluded that the former USSR supported and reinforced the economic, social and political fabric of Palestinian Arab society in Israel, training skilled academics and professionals who provide essential services and support for their society.

KEYWORDS:

• Migration
• graduates
• USSR
• Palestinian minority

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge Fadia Ibrahim and Muhammed Khalaile’s assistance in conducting the interviews for this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The Oslo accords with Israel in 1993 established a Palestinian National Authority (PNA – also referred to as the Palestinian Authority, or PA) as an interim body to run parts of Gaza and the West Bank (but not East Jerusalem) pending an agreed solution to the conflict.

Additional information

Funding

This research has been fully supported by Russian and the Former USSR Alumni Association among the Palestinian Arabs in Israel.

Notes on contributors

Khalid Arar

Khalid Arar, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at the School Improvement Doctoral Program, College of Education, Texas State University, and an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Leadership in Education. For the past two decades, his research has focused on both K-12 and higher education policies through the lens of equity and diversity. Recently, he published extensively on the issue of migration, refugees, displaced, and education.