The African migrant issue in Israel is one of those stories where the solution is relatively simple but the politics, fueled by misinformation, are devilishly complex. I composed the following myth and facts to educate myself. I am not an expert and all cited data comes from easily verifiable public sources—in places where I don’t know what data exists, I say so. 1. They came for jobs, not to escape persecution. That is, they are migrant workers, not refugees. Saying exactly who is and isn’t a refugee is currently not possible because Israel has so far not followed international law in assessing the migrants’ refugee status.  The estimated 54,000 refugees are almost entirely Eritreans (36,000) and Sudanese (14,000). In other countries, more than 70% of Eritrean and Sudanese are recognized as refugees and granted asylum. Related: What to...

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