There are obviously numerous reasons why people migrate to another country.  Research from Penn State suggests that one of the biggest reasons is the cultural similarities between the immigrant’s homeland and their adopted home.

The researchers discovered that when people move to a place with a similar culture, then their migration is far more likely to be successful than when they move for other reasons.

“Our findings suggest that humans may be able to successfully adapt to new locations as long as they are able to form connections with and learn from the local population,” the researchers say. “It’s likely that immigrants are happier and more likely to stay when migrating to places where there are people who are similar to themselves, for example, sharing the same religion, language, or customs.”

Reasons to move

The researchers suggest that we have often thought that people migrate in search of a better environment, which in the past would often revolve around access to farmland but in the modern world may be access to jobs.  There is a growing appreciation, however, for cultural similarities as a driver.

The researchers were able to access data from Finland during World War II, which contained information on unsuccessful as well as successful migrations.  The period was unique in that the entire population of Karelia was forced to relocate to new locations in the west of the country.  A few years later they were given the chance to move back, which some did, but some did not.

“This was a rare historical occurrence that provided us with a really interesting way to analyze the actual behavior of a huge population of people who essentially voted with their feet,” the authors say. “They either went home or remained in their new homes, which made them an ideal population for trying to answer what leads to a successful migration.”

Successful moves

In total, over 22,000 people evacuated from Karelia, and the researchers used data from these evacuations to develop a number of models that allowed them to test whether the moves would be successful or not.

These factors included things, such as linguistic differences, that could broadly be characterized as sociocultural characteristics.  The data consistently showed that being younger, better educated, and moving to a linguistically similar area were linked with a successful migration.

“While these findings tell us nothing about primary migrations—the first people to ever populate an area—they do tell us a lot about secondary migrations,” the researchers conclude. “Our results show that these secondary migrations in the past are more likely to fail if the migrants are unable to integrate into and learn from the host population than if they are confronted by ecological constraints, like poor soil conditions for farming.”