This qualitative study focuses on the parenting experience of immigrant parents from the former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel. Seventeen in-depth open interviews with FSU immigrant parents were conducted. All participants had been living in Israel between one-and-a-half and five years and had adolescent children aged 11 to 17. The central theme that emerges from the interviews is the participants' sense of parental responsibility, which is based on four central components: control, involvement, discipline, and parental guidance. Immigration challenges the participants' abilities to fulfil their responsibilities as parents by exposing them and their children to cultural differences in child-rearing practices and language difficulties. Pressures of work and learning to live in a new culture may lead to a lack of emotional and physical availability to their children. Participants try to cope with these challenges by maintaining child-rearing practices used in the FSU. Many parents report this means of coping as unsuccessful and feel helpless and uncertain in tackling new parental dilemmas posed by immigration.

The present study investigated the adaptation process of immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Israel as a multiple-stressor situation that involves cognitive appraisals and coping efforts. A sample of 301 new immigrants (residing in Israel three years or less), 67% women, 25 to 45 years old, completed inventories measuring cognitive appraisals of three major immigration stressors-employment, language, and housing difficulties-and the strategies used to cope with these demands. Level of distress (as indicated by depression and anxiety) was also assessed. The results show positive associations between cognitive appraisals of the various stressors, as well as between the coping strategies applied to them, indicating mutual influences between stressors in a multiple-stressor situation. In addition, an interaction between the appraisals of threat/loss of the three stressors predicted the respondents' distress level, supporting the potentiation model of coping with multiple stressors. Last, the findings support the notion of a stable coping style by showing especially high correlations between coping efforts with different stressors.

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Between 1989 and 2005, Israel absorbed over a million new immigrants, about 90% of whom were from the Former Soviet Union (FSU). The present study investigated the adaptation of these FSU new immigrants in a sample of 301 participants (67% women, ages 25-45 years), who completed inventories measuring personal resources (tolerance of ambiguity and cognitive flexibility), cognitive appraisals (of employment, language, and housing problems), coping strategies, well-being, distress, and willingness to remain in Israel. A structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed that tolerance for ambiguity and cognitive flexibility contributed positively to control appraisals, task-oriented coping, and level of participant well-being, and negatively to threat/loss appraisals, emotion/avoidance-oriented coping, and distress. Control appraisals contributed to task-oriented coping, whereas threat/loss appraisals contributed to both emotion/avoidance-oriented and task-oriented coping. Control and challenge appraisals, and task-oriented coping, contributed positively to participant willingness to remain in Israel, whereas emotion/avoidance-oriented coping contributed positively to distress levels, which in turn were negatively related to willingness to remain in Israel. The results of this study have significant implications for such aspects of immigrant adaptation as absorption policies and the provision of individual care by professionals and organizations.

This qualitative study focuses on the unique characteristics of drug abuse among former Soviet Union (FSU) immigrant drug addicts in Israel, as well as on special concerns faced by them during rehabilitation. It is based on in-depth interviews with Russian-speaking recovering addict counselors employed in addiction treatment centers. The findings point to the existence of a distinct "Russian" drug-abuse culture that is expressed through unique patterns of abuse, rapid deterioration, adherence to the "Russian" criminal moral code, and distinct norms of interpersonal relations. Furthermore, a complex relationship between this culture and the rehabilitation process was found, with cultural features having both negative as well as positive effects on patients' chances of successful recovery. A discussion is presented regarding the implications for treatment based on the interviewees' reflections as well as on existing literature.

The issue of name change, and in particular name reclaiming (i.e., taking back a heritage name), among immigrants has been rarely studied academically, despite its centrality to immigrant identity and immigration experiences. Immigrants, in many countries, are often encouraged or pressured to change their names, but in recent years, some have chosen to reclaim their heritage or original names. This article analyzes the practice of name reclaiming among young Israelis of Ethiopian heritage, a community that has experienced racial discrimination. Data were gathered through a qualitative phenomenological study of 19 young adults who immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia as minors. The analysis yielded two simultaneous dialogues: an internal dialogue in which individuals described their personal experience of name reclaiming and an external dialogue in which name reclaiming reflected a political and social process through which a discriminated minority could express increased feelings of power and agency. The results enrich the study of migration by showing the ways in which personal and social-political processes experienced by a discriminated minority intertwine, as vividly illustrated by the specific case of name reclaiming.

This qualitative study explores the trajectories of drug abuse and addiction development among former Soviet Union (FSU) immigrant users. It is based on in-depth interviews with 19 Russian-speaking recovering addict counselors employed in Israeli addiction treatment centers. The interview analysis yielded two main trajectories: one of abuse deterioration and the other of abuse initiation in the context of coping with immigration. The core issue that characterizes both trajectories is the immigrant users’ sense of loneliness. Participation in treatment appears as a path for regaining their sense of belonging. Implications for prevention and treatment based on the interviewees’ reflections, as well as on extant literature, are discussed.

This exploratory and descriptive paper depicts a unique pilot program in Israel aimed at assisting and supporting immigrant families from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) whose children have been involved in criminal behavior after the immigration. The program is a joint venture of the Immigrant Parents Forum association, the Welfare Services Department at the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption (MIA), and the Juvenile Probation Service (JPS) at the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services. It provides structured help to the families of these youngsters, including mediation with the JPS and other officials and public bodies in the community, parental training, guidance, and emotional support. The program description, including case illustrations, is based on the program's internal documents and interviews with the following key figures: the chairwoman of the Immigrant Parents Forum, two program coordinators, the program supervisor, the director of the JPS, the deputy head of the regional JPS office in charge of implementing the program on a trial basis, and the regional social worker at the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption. Although the program is implemented in a particular social and political context, it may offer ideas about assisting immigrant parents regardless of origin, ethnicity, and specific social circumstances.