Geographical distribution of the Soviet-Jewish new immigrants in Israel

The State of Israel is facing now one of the most difficult absorption challenges it has ever had. About 250.000 Soviet-Jewish immigrants have arrived to the country since 1989 and another million are waiting in the Soviet Union for immigration. A direct absorption plan around an absorption basket of a few thousand dollar per family of three for the first year enables the immigrants to choose their place of habitation. They concentrate in big cities and veteran settlements along the coastal plain where employment possibilities are better. This trend is against the government's plans to direct them to peripheral regions. The current mass-immigration creates an unexpected change in the population and settlement pattern of Israel.