The findings clearly indicate that both subjective parameters of positive integration into the labour market are related to the extent the immigrant succeeded in retaining his original profession or the extent to which he distanced himself from his original profession. The desirability of the job and both the overall satisfaction and satisfaction with specific aspects of the job are highest among professional who retain their occupation. Those who found employment in an occupation that is close to their original occupation are slightly less satisfied especially in their opportunities of acquiring new skills and their chances of promotion, but they still consider themselves as working in a desired occupation. With increasing downward mobility, satisfaction decreases. However, it should be noted that even in skilled jobs, that over half the professionals find their job interesting and are pleased with the extent of authority and responsibility accorded them.

How can we account for the difference between the relatively low rate of immigrants who retain their profession and the not-so-low level of job satisfaction? Three explanations can be offered:

1. Immigrants may view the event of immigration as an opportunity for occupational change. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this is the case for some of the female engineers.

2. There is a process of adjustment and reconciliation as a result of their experiences in the labour market. Immigrants learn to lower their expectations and to consider the advantages of employment in clerical and sales jobs or in skilled jobs in industry where they can, at least partially, utilize their skills, and where they enjoy job security, interesting work, and authority and responsibility. It is worth noting that downwardly-mobile professionals enjoy greater job security than their colleagues who retain their profession. This seems to be a trade-off that immigrants make, foregoing working in their profession for job security.

From interviews with immigrants and employers in the engineers study, a different finding emerged: professionals who moved to skilled jobs had good chances of promotion to managerial positions thanks to their superior qualifications compared to veteran Israeli co-workers in their level at the workplace. 

3. A third explanation is that immigrants are eager to find employment which will

enable them to settle down and purchase various material goods. Purchasing an apartment and/or a car - 71% of the respondents in the employment survey had purchased an apartment by 1995 and 62% owned a car - may compensate, at least temporarily, for their having to give up their original profession.

Looking at engineers and medical doctors suggests that the perception of a desired occupation and the sense of job satisfaction may vary among professionals. Among Soviet engineers, 49% of those who were employed in professions which are related to engineering, for example, computer programmer, technician, consider themselves as being employed in a desired job, and so do 24% of those whose current job is totally unrelated to engineering (compared to 83% of those employed as engineers). 62% of the former group were satisfied with their job, and so were 45% of the latter group (compared to 87% of those employed as engineers).

In contrast to engineers, Soviet doctors who are employed in other positions tend to be far less satisfied - only 31% expressed satisfaction. The higher rate of satisfaction of engineers compared to doctors cannot be attributed to better alternative jobs since most of those are semi-skilled and unskilled jobs which do not suit their level of education, while the doctors are at least employed in jobs related to nursing and feel they are still treating people. The explanation for the difference could be the differential professional commitment and also previous experiences with job change. Among the engineers 13% did not work as engineers prior to immigration, and 30% to 70%, depending on the field, did not work in the area of specialization they had received their diploma in even in their country of origin. The intensity of the doctors' professional commitment can be deduced from the finding that in the first stage of the follow-up study in 1994 28% of them said that if they did not find employment in their profession in the coming year. they would rather work as doctors without pay than work for pay in paramedical jobs (55%) or in jobs not related to medicine (14%).

Another factor which appears to be connected to the subjective reaction to not being employed in one's original occupation is gender, although this is more true for engineers than for doctors. The level of satisfaction among female engineers employed in jobs related to engineering is almost identical to that of their colleagues who work as engineers (88% and 84% respectively) while among the men the level of satisfaction among those employed in jobs related to engineering is close to that of those employed in totally unrelated jobs (47% & 44% respectively). Female engineers are less committed to their profession and will be satisfied if they are given an interesting, well-paying job which has chances of promotion in any other profession.

Continuity in profession does not automatically guarantee satisfaction. In the employment follow-up survey, 18% of the immigrants with professional background who retained their occupation did not perceive themselves as working in a desired occupation, and so did 17% of the engineers holding engineering jobs. 18% of the professionals and 13% of the engineers who continue in their profession were not satisfied with their jobs. This can be attributed to difficulties in adjusting to a new work environment - new methods, different work processes, and so forth - or to dissatisfaction with specific aspects of the job which might occur under any circumstances irrespective of the immigration factor.

What conclusions can be drawn from this analysis?

1. In broad terms, the subjective perception of the immigrants are compatible with objective data. Immigrants who are employed in their original or close profession, tend to express greater job satisfaction. This confirms the importance of efforts to assist immigrants in staying in their originally-trained profession or at least in their broader occupational categories.