Social representations of violence among Argentinian immigrants to Israel

Resumen

The present study explores the social representations of violence among Argentinian immigrants residing in Israel by the year 2025. This research was conducted through a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews aimed at understanding how these individuals identify and give meaning to their experiences of violence in both Argentina and Israel. The results reveal a paradox: although Israel statistically presents a higher exposure to violence (mainly terrorism), the participants reported feeling safer there than in Argentina. From this paradox, two clearly differentiated categories of social representations emerge. On one hand, there is violence associated with criminal behavior, which is random, unpredictable, and linked to the absence of the State, generating a feeling of chaos and widespread personal insecurity. On the other hand, violence in Israel (terror) is represented as ideological, targeted, expected, and managed by a present State and a cohesive society, which, paradoxically, provides a sense of order and protection. Theoretically, the social representations were analyzed from the perspective of Moscovici, that identifies how the processes of objectification and anchoring shape these contrasting images. One of the main findings suggests that the perception of safety does not depend solely on the frequency of violence, but on the meaning attributed to it. The existence of an interpretive framework transforms the experience of danger, integrating it into social and cultural life, while the absence of this framework maximizes the feeling of vulnerability.