Naar een theorie van emigratieverschijnselen

Samenvatting

A critical study of a Phd dissertation 'Migratiemotieven, Migratiebeheersing en hun selectieve betekenis,' Assen, 1957 (Migration Motives and Control and Their Selective Importance). Migration is defined as 'any lasting change of residence which occurs with the consent of the people concerned.' It is commented that 'freedom of choice is not easily defined; that emigration may be forced but the choice of country of immigration free; that emigration and immigration are only parts of the entire migration process. More care is needed to distinguish between conscious and unconscious motivations and between frustration and discomfort as causes of emigration. The dissertation is based on a case study of the Dutch region of Eastern Groningen, with some references to the special case of Israel. The reviewer suggests a more general theory of emigration based on several variables involved in the process: a balance disturbance in the person concerned; he becomes aware of it; he examines possibilities of emigration in a certain framework; direct and indirect social controls go to work on him; his personality structure determines a certain type of decision. Finally, migration should be studied within the general process of SM. I. Langnas.