Labor migration in the public eye: attitudes towards labor migrants in Israel

'Die Schwerpunkte dieses Artikels sind (1) Einstellungen, Normen und Wertschätzung gegenüber Wanderarbeitern von außerhalb Israels sowie (2) die Abhängigkeit der Einstellungen von demografischen wie sozioökonomischen Merkmalen israelischer Bürger. Die Daten weisen darauf hin, daß Israelis deutlich negative Einstellungen gegenüber Arbeitsmigranten äußern. Diese werden in kultureller, sozialer und politischer Hinsicht ausgegrenzt. Die soziale Ausgrenzung manifestiert sich in sozialer Distanz und der Unterstützung diskriminierenden Verhaltens (besonders wenn es zu einem Eindringen in die Privatsphäre kommt). Darüber hinaus werden die Gastarbeiter häufig nicht nur als Konkurrenten auf dem Arbeitsmarkt gesehen, sondern auch als eine Bedrohung in anderen sozialen Bereichen wie Wohlstand, Ausbildung, Gesundheit und Wohnen. Steigender Wettbewerb um knappe Ressourcen führt zu einer größeren Fremdenfeindlichkeit. Die meisten Israelis scheinen Einwanderern soziale und politische Rechte vorenthalten zu wollen. Ein Teil der verwendeten Items dieser Untersuchung wurde aus dem ALLBUS 1996 übernommen.' (Autorenreferat)'The major goal of the present paper(l) is to describe attitudes, norms and values toward migrant workers, and (2) to evaluate the extent to which attitudes toward migrant workers are related to demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the citizens of Israel. The data indicate that Israelis have substantial negative attitude toward labor migrants. These are perceived as outsiders in the cultural, social and political spheres. The social exclusion is manifested through feelings of social distance and the support for discriminating behavior (especially when it comes to intrusion in citizens'private lives). Furthermore, foreign workers are often viewed not only as competitors in the labor market but as a threat in other social realms (welfare, education, health and housing). Increased competition over scarce resources, generates greater hostility toward outgroup members - the foreign workers. Most Israelis seem to be willing to deny them social and political rights. Part of the items was taken from the ALLBUS 1996.' (author's abstract)

Evolution and Selection in Yeast Promoters: Analyzing the Combined Effect of Diverse Transcription Factor Binding Sites

In comparative genomics one analyzes jointly evolutionarily related species in order to identify conserved and diverged sequences and to infer their function. While such studies enabled the detection of conserved sequences in large genomes, the evolutionary dynamics of regulatory regions as a whole remain poorly understood. Here we present a probabilistic model for the evolution of promoter regions in yeast, combining the effects of regulatory interactions of many different transcription factors. The model expresses explicitly the selection forces acting on transcription factor binding sites in the context of a dynamic evolutionary process. We develop algorithms to compute likelihood and to learn de novo collections of transcription factor binding motifs and their selection parameters from alignments. Using the new techniques, we examine the evolutionary dynamics in Saccharomyces species promoters. Analyses of an evolutionary model constructed using all known transcription factor binding motifs and of a model learned from the data automatically reveal relatively weak selection on most binding sites. Moreover, according to our estimates, strong binding sites are constraining only a fraction of the yeast promoter sequence that is under selection. Our study demonstrates how complex evolutionary dynamics in noncoding regions emerges from formalization of the evolutionary consequences of known regulatory mechanisms

La institucionalización de la migración laboral en Israel

In this paper we shed light into the process of institutionalization of labor migration in Israel. Specifically, we show the ways by which state regulations created a fertile ground for the creation of a precarious and captive labor force of non-citizens in the Israeli labor market. We focus on the following four main dimensions: (1) the policy of quotas, work permits, and subsidies; (2) the binding system which regulates employment relations; (3) the creation of an infrastructure for manpower agencies that over time became the main stakeholder in the institutionalization of labor migration; and (4) the creation of a complementary mechanism for the “discipline” and control of workers in the form of the deportation policy.El artículo se centra en el proceso de institucionalización del fenómeno de migraciones laborales en Israel. El análisis describe las formas a través de las cuales las regulaciones del estado crearon las condiciones para el surgimiento de una fuerza de trabajo precaria y flexible de extranjeros en el mercado laboral Israelí. Cuatro dimensiones del proceso de institucionalización son analizadas: (1) la fijación de cuotas, otorgamiento de permisos de trabajo y subsidios, (2) el sistema de empleo que regula las relaciones laborales llamado binding, (3) la creación de una infraestructura de agencias de reclutamiento que se benefician de la comodificación del trabajo a través del cobro de tarifas ilegales a los inmigrantes, (4) la implementación del sistema de deportaciones como mecanismo de control y castigo hacia los trabajadores que no respetan las condiciones del contrato

"Infiltrators" or refugees? An analysis of Israel's policy towards African asylum seekers

This article adopts a genealogical approach in examining Israeli immigration policy by focusing on the situation confronting African asylum seekers who have been forced back into Egypt, detained and deported but who have not had their asylum claims properly assessed. Based on immigration policies formulated at the time of Israeli independence, whose principle objective was to secure a Jewish majority state, we argue that Israel’s treatment of African asylum seekers as ‘infiltrators’/economic migrants stems from an insistence on maintaining immigration as a sovereign issue formally isolated from other policy domains. Such an approach is not only in violation of Israel’s commitment to the Refugee Convention, it directly contributes to policies which are ineffective and unduly harsh

A comparison of mesophotic and shallow sponge holobionts resilience to predicted future temperature elevation

Climate change is predicted to have detrimental impacts on sessile invertebrates, including sponges. Mesophotic ecosystems have been suggested to play a major role as refugia for coral reef sponge species, however knowledge regarding the ability of mesophotic sponges to cope with thermal stress is scarce. In this study we compared the response of the sponge Diacarnus erythraeanus, a widespread Red Sea sponge, from the shallow and mesophotic reef, to moderate and acute temperature elevation (2°C and 6°C, respectively) for short and long term periods (two and 35 days, respectively) by measuring physiological parameters (respiration, oxygen removal, pumping rates, and photosynthetic efficiency), and the microbiome composition change. The results indicated that mesophotic and shallow populations of D. erythraeanus are highly tolerant to both moderate and acute heat stress, demonstrating a high survival rate (100%) across the experimental treatments, with no visible signs of bleaching or necrosis. Exposure to heat stress resulted in significant alterations in the physiological parameters of sponges, including higher respiration rate and lower photosynthetic efficiency. These alterations were accompanied by correspondingly significant microbial adjustments, thus emphasizing the essential role of the microbiome in the host’s ability to persist when facing essential environmental stress. Moreover, while shallow and mesophotic sponges showed similar physiological tolerance to heat stress, their microbial response differed: while the microbiome diversity of the mesophotic sponges remained stable throughout the experiment, the shallow one significantly changed. This result suggests that their underlying coping mechanisms might differ between mesophotic and shallow populations. Since the associated-microbiome is largely regulated by the sponge-host genetics, difference in microbial adjustments to stress between populations, could indicate genetic variability between hosts. Therefore, while the results of this study support the hypothesis that mesophotic coral reefs could serve as thermal refugia for some sponge species, it raises the question regarding the validity of MCEs as a refuge for shallow populations. Finally, it emphasizes the crucial need to elucidate the underlying mechanisms governing the sponge-microbiome interactions, specifically in the context of the anticipated climate change scenarios