Albertina Thandeka Sibanda – University of Opole, Poland
Keyword
Immigrant, Migration, Disappointment, Culture shock, Identity, Choice, Decision making
Abstract
This paper explores the push and pull factors in migration in tandem with cost benefit analysis. This exploration focuses on the micro level decision making process of potential immigrants’ choice of migration destination when the preferred destination has been rendered inaccessible due to a myriad of factors, ranging from immigration policies and the availability or lack thereof of finances. Analysis of both the objective and subjective barriers encountered and overcome by the potential immigrant are also discussed. Secondly, this paper analyses the identity constructed by these ‘disappointed’ immigrants after migrating to less popular immigrant receiving countries that were accessible to them.Choice limitation in migration has been studied with regards to how migrants make the decision to emigrate. Fafchamps & Shilpi (2012) found that migrants did not make it to their preferred destinations due a number of factors; the pull factors in preferred destinations may be inaccessible due to cumbersome visa application procedures and other personal factors.Given that in this case the push factors in the country of origin remain present or possibly increase, the potential immigrant looks for alternative destinations, which may not be as attractive as the preferred destination, but are much more accessible to them in terms of immigration policies, economic cost and much simpler visa application procedures, while also retaining some pull factors.The main question(s) this paper seeks to answer is what happens after the immigrant has settled in the country they had not initially intended to migrate to? What identity do they construct in a country they had not originally perceived as a destination choice? What happens after being uprooted from family, familiar customs, and cultural norms; where once one identified as a member of an in group and one becomes the other, due to visible physiological differences like skin colour or the inability to communicate in the host country’s main language and cultural differences? What meaning do immigrants then attach to their lives in the disappointing host country post-immigration? Do they attempt to integrate or cling to their cultural identity, do they become bicultural? Does their disappointment form an integral part of their identity as they ‘endure’ the host country? Initial unstructured interviews with a selection of international students at the University of Opole reveal that Poland was not their initial destination of choice. Qualitative in-depth interviews are used to gain more insight on the process of immigration: decision making, process of elimination of inaccessible but attractive and preferred destinations, culture shock upon arriving in the less preferred destination, disappointment of the immigrant, construction and deconstruction of identities and coping strategies as immigrants ‘endure’ the host country. Immigration is a complex issue that cannot be understood only through stand-alone theories. The subjective and objective (integrated) perspectives should be analysed in tandem to fully understand the complex decision making process of migration and strategies employed in the process by potential immigrants.
Bibliography
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