Indians rush to fill Israeli construction jobs

India – Carpenters, bricklayers and painters queued at a college campus in the city of Lucknow last week in the hope of being chosen for better-paid jobs in Israel, with most playing down concerns about working in a conflict zone.

Israel’s construction industry has been calling for the recruitment of foreign workers to fill jobs previously occupied by about 80 000 Palestinian workers barred from entering Israel since it declared war on the Hamas militant group in October.

Indian workers have been promised salaries of $1 600 (about R30 000) a month by Israel’s Population Immigration and Border Authority. This is equivalent to almost a full year’s salary for many Indian construction workers.

For Ashok Biswas, a mason who travelled 1 000km from West Bengal to Lucknow when he heard about the hiring drive, the prospect of a much higher salary made the decision to apply easy despite the ongoing conflict.

“Our sole goal is to secure a means to live, it could be anywhere in the world,” he said as he queued outside the Industrial Training Institute.

Israel plans to bring in about 70 000 foreign workers from China, India and elsewhere to boost its construction sector, which has been largely frozen since the 7 October Hamas attack that triggered the war, reported an Israeli newspaper.

Israeli farms, building sites and hotels are among the sectors struggling with a worker shortage since the war erupted, and some foreign migrant labourers have left, fearing for their safety.

During the week-long recruitment campaign, just over 5 000 people were selected, said Ajay Kumar Raina from the federal government’s National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

Five more Indian states have also asked the NSDC to carry out recruitment for Israeli jobs, said Raina. Their interest highlights India’s tough labour market with the creation of formal jobs stagnating and high rates of joblessness among the young, say economic analysts.

India is the world’s most populous nation with a population of 1.4 billion. Government data shows it has an urban unemployment rate of 6.6%, but more than 17% of workers younger than 29 are unemployed and others work as casual labour. Unemployment and underemployment are a key concern for authorities.