Political report of the Executive of the Jewish Agency submitted to the ... Zionist Congress and the ... session of the Council of the Jewish Agency · 1937-08-01 · 8.1937 · p. Seite 74

74t normal labour reserve. As in the meantime twice this number of Jewish workers have entered the country under the labour schedules, there has in effect been a clear relative decrease of unemployment. Economic prospects indicate the probability that a certain proportion of the present unemployment will be re-absorbed in the near future, while such residue of unemployment as may remain will certainly not exceed a reasonable margin. The Jewish Agency has always urged the need for such a reserve, in the interests of a normal level of wages and of stable conditions in the labour market, and it can now point to the recent normalisation of wage standards as bearing out. its contention. The investigation of labour rquirements undertaken for the coming schedule period reveals a prospect of steady economic expansion warranting, in the judgment of the Jewish Agency, a substantial grant of immigration certificates on the basis of both the normal increase of employment and the special allocation provided for the absorption of Jewish immigrants from Germany by the Central Council for German Jewry. I would venture to express the hope that adequate grants of certificates may be made, now and in the future, to meet the requirements for Jewish labour. 3. Some measures adopted or contemplated during the period under review have indicated a tendency to restrict Jewish immigration to a minimum. There has been a continued disparity between the estimates of the Jewish Agency in regard to the country's capacity to absorb immigrant Jewish labour, and the labour schedules granted by the Government. In addition, steps were taken to curtail the admission of relatives dependent on Palestinian residents, and it was suggested that the capital requirement for capitalist immigrants should be raised from £1,000 to £2,000. This latter suggestion, which the Jewish Agency would have had very strenuously to oppose, was stated by the Secretary of State in his speech in the House of Commons on the 24th of March, 1936, to have been abandoned. The former limitation, which is now in force, will not. only appreciably reduce the total annual volume of Jewish immigration, but will cause hardship and suffering to a large number of Jewish families, in Palestine and abroad. The maximum age of children admissible as dependents has been reduced to 15, facilities for bringing over parents have been curtailed, while the admission of young brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, etc., has been practically discontinued. I would point out that in many cases persons who apply for the admission of their dependents from abroad contribute to their maintenance by sending money out of Palestine, while if allowed to bring them into the country they would derive considerable help from them in their farms, shops or households without the labour market being affected thereby. It is submitted, therefore, that the stringent regulations now govern-