Transition to Retirement of 1990s Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union to Israel

The purpose of the current research was to compare pre- and post-retirement financial and economic resources of two groups of Jewish Israelis, Russian-speaking immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and Hebrew-speaking veteran Israelis. The strategy of data-processing was based on SHARE Wave 6 (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe) and included two levels of analysis: a) household general economic indices and b) individual economic variables for two age subsamples ('51-66' and '67 + '). The research-based model of well-being enabled comparison of economic profiles of the studied groups. The results of logistic regression and discriminant analysis of twenty SHARE 6.0 monetary variables displayed economic and financial inequality of retirement resources between veteran Israeli residents and Russian-speaking immigrants. Lower values of main residence, owned vehicles, and private pensions, together with higher values of mortgage burden, rent expenses, and inter-family support were significant distinguishing features of FSU immigrants. Analysis of the household indices demonstrated that the group of older FSU immigrants was most vulnerable due to their lowest values of household net worth and total income. According to the results of inter- and intra-gender comparisons of incomes between the groups of '67 + ' representatives, Russian-speaking women were identified as having the fewest resources. The retirement resources of Russian-speaking Israelis were clearly inferior to those of Hebrew-speaking veteran Israelis of the same age.Future research of retirement resources of Israelis may include non-financial components of human capital and additional socio-demographic factors.