Migration to Kharej: Dreamed Expectations of Iranian Migrants vs. Experienced Actualities of Living Abroad

The growing number of migrants from Iran to the Western World during the past decades represents opportunities as well as challenges for both migrants and host communities. One of the issues that challenge Iranian migrants who move to Western countries is their unrealistic ideas about their presumed destination. This study aims to measure how accurate were the expectations of Iranians about life in Germany before their migration. We conducted two quantitative surveys among Iranians already living in Germany, as well as Iranians who intended to migrate to Germany. Comparing the results of the two sets of data, the study argued that in most cases (74%) the expectations before migration were over-optimistic. In 17% of the cases, they were realistic, and only in some cases (9%), they were under-optimistic. In addition, we found some correlations that suggest that factors such as gender, level of education, the reason for migration, and the preferred source of information of the participants can impact on the accuracy of the expectation.