Functional Integration Without Symbolic Recognition: Russian-Speaking Repatriates in Israel's System of Competing Solidarities

This paper introduces "competing solidarities" as an analytical framework and applies it to the case of Russian-speaking immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Israel. The framework describes societies in which several large groups coexist without a shared vision of what the state ought to be, each operating under its own rules, institutions, and claims on public resources. Coexistence rests less on law—which is itself perpetually contested—than on coalition bargaining and informal arrangements renegotiated with each new government. The paper advances a two-part hypothesis: a group may be economically integrated yet remain outside the shared cultural narrative when, first, it lacks the resources that dominant blocs recognize as grounds for inclusion, and second, no dominant bloc has an incentive to extend such recognition. The hypothesis is examined through a comparative analysis of Russian-speaking immigrants and Mizrahim.