Migration Aspiration: The Migration Tendency and the Image of the West Among the Iranian Student-Migrants

The bulk of the existing research on international migration has focused on the macro structural dimensions of this phenomenon. In the case of the migration of Iranians, most of the current discussions revolve around the magnitude of migratory flows; hence, a heavy debate about the statistics of immigration and their validity. In this study, we have tried to capture the social-psychological dimension of immigration, by drawing on the experiences of the Iranian student-migrants and those in the pre-migration phase. The present research aims to study dynamic changes of their images of the destination (Western Countries in this case) through the process of migration.Based on semi-structured interviews with 22 subjects, and a thematic analysis of their responses, the study revealed four important findings a) studying migration should not be reduced to studying migrants only, as the broader society is vividly present in all of one’s personal decisions regarding migration; b) in addition to those who actually migrate, there is a larger segment of population who desire to migrate but they never do; understanding this group is essential for a deeper understanding of the phenomenon we have called ‘the migration tendency’; c) in many cases, migration involves a utopian image of the destination country; d) such images are often arrived at in a very early age, and not necessarily in the adult years and based on a detailed cost-benefit analysis of migration; understanding this feature is crucial for formulating proper responses and policies with regards to migration.