A study of jewish adolescent russian immigrants to israel: Language and identity

The research on the influx of more than 400,000 immigrants from the former Soviel Union to Israel has ignored the adolescent population. The struggle of the adolescent to integrate into the majority culture and the relationship of this struggle to language are the central concerns of this article. The demands of adolescence and the searchfor identity are complex issues under the best of conditions. The pressures of a new culture äs reflected in the acquisition of language and the relationship ofthe adolescent Immigrant were investigated in this study of adolescent immigrants who had been in Israel from three to 30 months. Our findings indicate that the need to establish ones identity has serious implications for the manner in which adolescents see themselves and the manner in which they present themselves to the society at large. These findings could have practical implications in a worid where movement across borders and cultures is commonplace.