Strangers in Israel: The relationship between perceived threat, mastery and community resources, and levels of social distance towards foreigners and sense of well-being among veteran residents in disadvantage neighborhoods

Through the last decade, there has been a significant increase in the number of infiltrators into the State of Israel, most of whom are from Eritrea and Sudan, while the rest are from other African countries, such as Ivory-Coast and Ethiopia. Currently, there are approximately 55,000 infiltrators living in Israel, out of whom 30,000 reside in Tel-Aviv’s southern neighborhoods like Hatikva, and this has led to much friction between the asylum seekers and the Israeli residents of those old neighborhoods of Tel-Aviv (Natan, 2011, 2012; Population and Immigration Authority, 2013). The current study was aimed at exploring this phenomenon of immigrants’ entry into Israel and settling in central Israel, through the perspective of the veteran residents from underprivileged neighborhoods in three Israeli cities: Hatikva in Tel-Aviv, Sha’ariya and Achdut in Petach-Tikva, and the neighborhoods of ancient Rosh Ha’ayin.

 In the face of such a social situation, the current study examined the “Social Distance” between the veteran residents and the asylum seekers’ community, as well as the veteran residents’ “Sense of Well Being” by testing for correlations between four parameter groups: (1) background parameters; (2) threat parameters - realistic threat, negative stereotype, symbolic threat, and intergroup anxiety; (3) personal resource - mastery; and (4) community resources - citizen participation, leadership, and client participation; and social distance and sense of well-being. Furthermore, the current study identified which of the four threat parameters better predicts the social distance from strangers.

Thus, the following hypotheses were defined: (1) old age and a better socio-economic state, education and employment, would correlate with lesser social-distance and higher sense of well-being. Residing in proximity to strangers would correlate with low sense of well-being and a greater social distance compared to residing further away from strangers. The hypothesis was that men and people with right-wing political standpoint would express a greater social distance from strangers; (2) Higher threat-perception would correlate with greater social distance from strangers and lower sense of well-being; (3) Higher levels of mastery would correlate with lesser social distance from strangers and higher sense of well-being; (4) Higher levels of community resources would correlate with lesser social distance and higher sense of well-being.

 Participants were 168 residents who have been residing in those neighborhoods over five years, men and women ages 18 and up. Data was collected from the residents according to convenience-sampling in two ways. The first, by collecting questionnaires in the streets of the neighborhood and within various service providers in the neighborhood, such as communal center, local post office, local venders and merchants in the neighborhood market. Second, by workers and activists in the neighborhood who are in constant interaction with the residents, such as coordinators in youth centers, workers in communal centers, communal activists and neighborhood workers. The research instrument that comprised the questionnaire were: personal details questionnaire, social distance questionnaire (Bogardus, 1925), sense of well-being questionnaire (Bradburn, 1969), realistic threat (Raijman, 2013), symbolic threat (Schwartzwald and Sabo-Manor, 2005), negative stereotype (Raijman, 2013), intergroup anxiety (Schwartzwald and Sabo-Manor, 2005), mastery (Pearlin and Schooler, 1978), citizen participation (Zimmerman and Rappaport, 1988), client participation (Itzhaky and York, 1994), and leadership (Zimmerman and Zahniser, 1991).

The statistical tests that were used were:

1) One-way Pearson correlation tests were used to test connections between background scale variables and the dependent study variables. 2) ANOVA tests were used to test for differences between background dichotomous variables and the dependent study variables. 3) Pearson correlations were calculated to test correlations between the independent study variables- threat parameters, personal resource and community resources and the social distance and sense of well-being. 4) A Forced Steps Hierarchical Regression was used to test the study’s hypothesis. In the first step background variables were used, and in the second step the independent variables relevant to each hypothesis (background variables, threat variables, personal resource, and community resources) were added. 5) Hierarchical Regression was used to test which of the variables had the highest contribution and what was the overall combined contribution to the dependent variables – social distance and sense of well-being. In the first step the background variables were used, in the second the threat variables, in the third the personal resource, and in the fourth the community resources.

 The main findings showed that the individual’s threat perception is the main variable among this study’s variables that explains the levels of social distance among veteran residents towards strangers. Among the four threat components, the symbolic threat and the stereotype explained most of the variance of social distance exhibited by the residents. Furthermore, we found that old age and right-wing political views are correlated and even explain levels of social distance. Living in proximity to strangers did not increase negative stances of distance from strangers.

 As for sense of well-being, it was found that the background variables- age, socio-economic status and employment explain together the residents’ sense of well-being. As for geographical distance, it was found that residents who live in proximity to strangers report a lower sense of well-being. In addition, it was found that mastery had a part in explaining the variance of residents’ sense of well-being. Among the community resources, volunteering citizen participation, and client participation were found to be correlated with higher sense of well-being among the residents.

 In light of the findings, the first conclusion was that as opposed to threat perception that explains most of the variance of distance from strangers, psychological variables (mastery) and communal variables (citizen participation, leadership, and client participation), which are available for humans, do not reduce negative stances and distance from strangers unless the situation is perceived as threatening. In regard to geographical distance from strangers, the conclusion was that residents who live away from strangers and are not exposed physically to the phenomenon, expressed identical values of distance from strangers as did residents who do live in proximity to them, suggesting that negative stances towards strangers are not the result of a real or physical threat but stem from one’s symbolic-value level. This conclusion further supports the finding that symbolic threat and stereotype, which are related more to humans’ values and belief systems rather than to real and physical threats, explain the social distance from strangers of the overall number of participants in this study. In regard to sense of well-being, we concluded that because residents who are from low socio-economic status, high level of mastery, and with community resources (citizen participation and client participation) will have a high sense of well-being, then one should work for preserving and developing physical, personal and communal resources for one’s own sense of well-being. However, in regard to the social phenomena discussed in this study, high level of threat perception of strangers does not correlate with low levels of sense of well-being among residents, but only for those living in proximity to strangers.

The theoretical contribution of this study lies in the demonstration of the applicability of two central theories, Conservation of Resources Theory (Hobfoll, 1989) and integrated threat theory of prejudice (Stephan and Stephan, 1996) for the asylum seeking population as the out-group and the residents of the Israeli underprivileged neighborhoods as the in-group. Another theoretical contribution of this study was its contribution to the growing knowledge about the variables of the study and testing for correlation between the variables, according to the hypothesis, in order to understand the residents’ sense of well-being and the distance they express towards strangers. In the applied level, this study would assist in developing more efficient and accurate communal plans for the various collaborating actors who work in the neighborhood: activists, policy makers and communal workers, who work towards improving the quality of life and sense of well-being of the neighborhood’s residents, in underprivileged and heterogeneous neighborhoods in Israel.