Welcome Home: A Shared Identity Recognition in the Time of Crisis

ABSTRACT

How does a society sustain collective identity when formal citizenship and cultural recognition persistently diverge? Drawing on qualitative interviews with native‐born sabras and Russian‐speaking immigrants in Israel, this article develops a recognition‐gap framework specifying the mechanisms through which national belonging is produced asymmetrically for insiders and outsiders. Analysis reveals three interlocking mechanisms: performative repertoires that signal authenticity through the appearance of nonperformance; institutional pathways experienced as pre‐reflective by sabras yet consciously navigated by immigrants, reproducing privilege through naturalisation rather than exclusion; and ‘passionarity’, a distinctive affective logic wherein shared intensity of engagement sustains cohesion across radical sectoral fragmentation. Together, these mechanisms produce ‘hypertrophic pluralism’: profound ideological division coexisting with periodic solidarity during existential crisis. The findings demonstrate that symbolic boundaries operate semi‐autonomously from legal status, contributing to debates on cultural citizenship, national cohesion and recognition in diverse, immigration‐based societies.