To See and Not be Seen: Latin American Illegal Foreign Workers in Jerusalem

The article describes the formation and characteristics of the new evolving community of illegal Latin American foreign workers in Jerusalem while adopting the ecological perspective, which examines human development and behaviour in various contexts of their social and cultural environments. We have looked specifically at illegal Latin American foreign workers’ reasons for and process of migration, their accommodation and living conditions, allocation of employment, daily cultural and social conditions, education and health issues concerning children and families, perceptions of relations with host culture and perceptions of well‐being and future expectations. Our findings are based on the investigation of perspectives offered by the foreign workers themselves, by representatives of the various sectors of the host culture who are well acquainted with these workers, and by the researchers themselves, demonstrating how by means of triangulation these perceptions achieve extra validity or differ. The article further explores the contribution of the case study in the investigation of acculturation stress and migrant’s well‐being, and emphasizes the need to study specific populations of immigrants under specific ecological conditions.