Research Focus
Migration and Education | Labour Market Incorporation | Health System and Migration | War and Migration
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Photo credit: Alexandra Bolotina
Research
My personal biography has profoundly influenced my academic trajectory. Born and raised in Kharkiv, Ukraine, into a Jewish family that valued education and intellectual inquiry, I immigrated to Israel at the age of sixteen. Experiencing migration firsthand inspired my lifelong commitment to studying migration as a transformative social process and to understanding how it reshapes the lives of migrants and non-migrants alike.
My research focuses on how migration reshapes the lives of migrants and non-migrants, revealing its impact on individuals, communities, institutions, and societies. I investigate how extreme conditions reconfigure migration trajectories and transform societies. I am especially drawn to outlier trajectories (e.g., excellence and dropout) and exceptional circumstances (e.g., migration, displacement, and war). These serve as litmus tests that reveal broader societal processes and illuminate the mechanisms through which social boundaries and opportunities are reproduced, challenged, and transformed. Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the wartime reality that emerged after the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, my research has expanded to examine migration in the context of war.
As Head of the Institute for Immigration and Social Integration (IISI) at Ruppin Academic Center, I launched and oversaw the Annual Migration, Aliyah, and Relocation Index since 2022, and the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) signed a formal agreement with the IISI to develop a new multidimensional index for assessing immigrant integration in Israel.