Ever since the implementation of compulsory education, schools have functioned as a social agent of two major processes: nation building and migration. However, an interesting situation arises when the teachers are themselves, newcomers, as it did in the two first decades of compulsory education in Israel. Immigrant teachers comprised more than a fifth of the teachers during the 50s. They worked in an education system where over two-fifths of the students were immigrants Therefore, immigrant teachers were placed in a unique position. On the one hand, they were newcomers who struggled with the difficulties of integration, and on the other, they were supposed to serve, as did their colleagues, as representatives of the state.
This study entails analyzing immigrant teachers` integration processes in relation to the symbolic boundaries approach in the following three fields – economic: crossing the boundary into the veteran society`s middle class; professional: crossing the boundary between an ordinary person and one with a profession, which entailed creating the professional identity and status awarded that the educational profession had at that time; and finally, crossing the boundary between newcomers and old-timers. This boundary crossing examines through two viewpoints: the first is how immigrant teachers coped with the ethos of the absorbing society and its distribution to immigrant students. The second is the conversion of teachers into local initiators developed the self-confidence of people who feel comfortable in their surroundings, which characterizes old-timers rather than immigrants.