Migrants’ original intentions poorly predict their actual settlement behavior

Evidence

Migration is not a simple individual action, but rather a long drawn-out process which will be played out for the rest of the migrant’s life and affect subsequent generations too. The action of crossing a border is the culmination of a complex process of migration decision making shaped by a wide range of factors. In turn, the border crossing marks the beginning of a settlement process, involving all sorts of economic, social, cultural, psychological, and political changes. Migration arises as a result of social change and in turn affects whole communities and societies in both sending and receiving areas. The experience of migration and settlement often leads to modification of the original plans, so that migrants’ intentions at the time of departure are poor predictors of actual behavior. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3829

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in how institutions emerge from migrant communities — Milgrom’s law merchant work and The Namesake both touch drift between intent and settled life. — connects to: Refugees’ professed desire to return fades once they urbanize — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East: Forced Migration…, 1635