Indians in construction, Thais in the fields: Gaza War drives immigration to Israel
Since the beginning of the conflict, at least 16,000 workers have come from India to replace the blockades in the West Bank and the Strip. Influx destined to increase thanks to targeted campaigns. In the north, farmers from Thailand are returning, among the migrants who have paid the most in terms of victims and kidnappings. From 165,000 to only 15,000 Palestinians working in Israel.
Milan (AsiaNews) - Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, which has been going on for over 15 months with the inevitable streak of bloodshed and devastation, has also had a profound impact on the economy and employment, especially among migrant workers who are increasingly replacing Palestinians.
According to the latest estimates, since 7 October 2023 - the day of the extremist group's attack that triggered the Jewish state's military reaction - at least 16,000 Indian workers, mainly in the construction sector, have left their country of origin to move to Israel.
However, according to experts, the number would still not be sufficient to ‘cover’ the needs caused by the permit blockade, which has simultaneously deprived tens of thousands of Palestinians of a job and dried up their families' sources of income.
India is the fifth largest economy in the world and among the fastest growing, but struggles to create enough domestic jobs for millions of people. With the conflict in the Strip there has been a further strengthening of recruitment through targeted campaigns in the construction sector to replace Palestinians who are increasingly unable to cross the borders on a daily basis.
Recruitment campaign
Samir Khosla, president of Delhi-based Dynamic Staffing Services, which has sent around 500,000 Indians to work in more than 30 countries around the world, has so far transferred more than 3,500 workers to Israel, a new market with further expansion possibilities.
The entrepreneur came a month after the 7 October attack, taking up the call of local authorities seeking foreign workers in the construction industry, a sector frozen due to the war.
‘We did not know the market and there was no Indian workforce yet,’ Khosla explained, so ‘we had to move and understand the needs’. He considers India a ‘natural choice’ for Israel considering the ‘excellent relations’ between the two governments, while the goal is to bring up to 10,000 employees, having a large pool of skilled workers in all sectors.
‘In a short time, you can earn much more in Israel,’ says Suresh Kumar Verma, 39, a native of Uttar Pradesh and employed at a construction site north of Tel Aviv. Israeli researchers explain that the number of Indian migrants still does not match the number of Palestinians present before the war, which hinders the overall growth of the sector.
According to Eyal Argov of the Central Bank, before the Hamas attack, about 80,000 Palestinians, mostly from the West Bank, were employed in the construction sector, together with almost 26,000 foreigners. Now the number of foreigners employed is around 30 thousand, a figure that is insufficient, so much so that activity in the sector in the last quarter of 2024 is about 25 per cent below pre-war levels.
The number of Indian workers, Argov adds, is ‘still very low’ and, while this does not create a ‘housing shortage’ at the moment, it could lead to ‘delays for new housing’. ‘Israel,’ the expert concludes, ‘has a growing population [although there has been a slowdown in the past year and, in tandem, a spike in migration, ed], which is increasing by 2% per year, and this delay could lead to structural shortages in the future’.
Thai at the northern front
In 2023, 17% of the 137,000 or so foreign nationals with work permits in Israel were Indians, closely followed by migrants from the Philippines and Thailand, both at 16%. At the same time, there was significant growth in Chinese jobs, which increased by 15% between 2022 and 2023.
Thai farmers are among the migrants most exposed to the conflict, given that they are employed in the north, in the border area with Lebanon considered off-limits to the Israelis themselves due to the war - now frozen after the signing of a fragile ceasefire - with Hezbollah. Despite the tension, and with permission granted by the army, farm owners and foreign workers continue to work in the area, tending fields and livestock.
Although agriculture has gradually declined as a percentage of GDP for Israel in recent years, the country remains famous for the products of the land, which are exported to the United States and the European Union, among others, with a turnover of .5 billion in 2021.
Ubon Namsan, originally from Thailand, says he got used to the hissing sound that preceded the arrival of rockets from the land of cedars, whose border lies just a few kilometres north of the kiwi orchard whose rows he scours for ripe fruit.
Like the vast majority of the 30,000 foreign farm labourers in Israel, the 28-year-old has learnt to take refuge in the basement of an adjacent farm shed to shelter from the bombs.
To compensate for the risks, a salary that is three times higher than what he could earn in his home country, averaging 00 per month. To this is added a further as an incentive for working in what Israel has classified as a military zone, in a context that remains one of war and tension.
Foreigners have also taken their toll: among the 1,200 people killed on 7 October 2023 in the Hamas attack were at least 66 migrant workers, most of them Thai. Another 251 people were taken hostage, including 31 Thai farmers - the fate of a couple of whom remains uncertain - and a Filipina caregiver.
Dangers are still present, as confirmed by the death in October of a Thai labourer near the northern border killed by an explosive device detonated when a tractor passed by, or of a farm owner and four Thai farmers hit by Hezbollah rockets in the northern city of Metula.
The Palestinian blockade
While the number of Asian migrant workers has increased, the number of Palestinians has plummeted: according to a study by Statista Research Department, before 7 October 2023, around 165,000 people from the West Bank and Gaza were working (more or less) permanently in Israel, most of them - around 75,000 - commuting in the construction sector.
Following the outbreak of the war, their number was reduced to only 15,000, despite the progressive interdependence of the Israeli and Palestinian economies, especially in the agricultural and construction sectors.
Hence the accusation by trade union groups and activists to the Jewish state of having violated international law (also) on labour issues, withholding salaries and benefits from almost 200,000 Palestinians.
Moreover, the Israeli government has allegedly ‘blatantly’ violated the International Labour Organisation (Ilo) convention on the protection of wages, throwing Palestinians into extreme poverty. One of the reasons is the non-payment for services rendered before the start of the conflict by workers from the Strip and the West Bank, who are still waiting for their compensation.
Ilo estimates pu the average daily wage for Palestinian workers in Israel at , with weekly salaries between 5 and 0. Furthermore, unemployment among Palestinians reached an all-time high with a figure of 89% last March as reported by Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa.
Finally, in an attempt to recover unpaid emoluments last week, movements and activists filed a complaint in court, with little chance of success.
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