(Photo By: Flash90)
By: i24News - December 28, 2020
Despite the coronavirus pandemic affecting much of the world for the majority of the year, Israel still managed to welcome approximately 20,000 new immigrants in 2020 according to newly released Jewish Agency figures.
The figure represents a 59-percent decrease from 2019, which saw some 34,000 immigrants, the highest annual figure for the past decade.
According to the Jewish Agency, as with last year's immigrants, the newcomers hailed mostly from North America and France.
According to the organization's longer-term forecasts, some 250,000 people will move to Israel in the next three-to-five years.
“Since the beginning of the year, the Jewish Agency has received around 160,000 inquiries about immigration to Israel and has opened about 41,000 new aliyah application cases, including 28,000 cases from Western countries. [We have seen] a 41-percent-increase in the opening of files for young adults aged 18 to 35 from Western countries,” the Jewish Agency explained.
Read More: i24News