Returns and beyond: circular and onward migration in the Israeli context

In recent years, migration to and from Israel has returned to the centre of public debate, once again becoming a buzzword in a moment of crisis. The war that followed October 7, together with a broader climate of social and political uncertainty, has made exit newly salient in Israeli public life, much as it did in earlier periods of upheaval. Jewish immigration, deemed Aliyah, has always been constitutive of Zionist and Israeli history. Early migration waves from Eastern Europe and Yemen, for example, were driven among else by messianism, proto-Zionism, socialist Zionism, and the urgency of refuge-seeking. Under British Mandate, immigration accelerated, as anti-Jewish violence and economic hardship intensified across the European continent, while immigration from the Middle East continued, however constituting minority during this period (unlike prior and future periods). These early movements laid the institutional, demographic, and ideological groundwork for future waves of immigration.