“It Wasn’t My Idea to Come Here”: Young Women Lack Ownership of the Idea to Immigrate

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Together with getting married and buying a house, the decision to immigrate is one of the most important decisions that a person can make.  So, it’s important that immigrants feel that they have satisfactory input into the process of deciding whether or not to migrate.  In some recent research, I looked at a very early stage of this decision-making process: ownership of the idea to immigrate.

I analysed survey data from 1,702 married immigrants to Australia. Each immigrant was asked “whose idea was it to emigrate to Australia?” Responses were coded as indicating either sole ownership (“It was my idea”), joint ownership with spouse or partner (“We thought of the idea together”), or no ownership (“It was my husband or wife’s idea”).

Surprisingly, I found gender, age, and cross-cultural differences on this very simple, early-stage measure of decision-making. Women were significantly less likely than men to claim ownership of the idea to immigrate, and this lack of ownership went on to predict women’s lack of satisfaction following their move to Australia.

In addition, young women and nonWestern women were less likely than older women and Western women to claim ownership of the idea to immigrate. This pattern of results may reflect a lack of power experienced by young and nonWestern women in their marriages.

The present findings do not imply that young or female immigrants were in any way forced or coerced to migrate to Australia.  However, they do provide some cause for concern, especially given that ownership of the idea to immigrate appears to predict subsequent satisfaction in the new country.

This research has been officially accepted for publication in the International Journal of Intercultural Relations, which is a top quality journal, ranked in the top third of sociology journals. For further information, please see the following article: 

Rubin, M. (2013). “It wasn’t my idea to come here!”: Ownership of the idea to immigrate as a function of gender, age, and culture International Journal of Intercultural Relations DOI: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2013.02.001

Note: The views expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Australian Government's Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

Immigrants Should Be Independent and Proactive to Achieve Better Social Integration

Previous research has shown that immigrants who approach, rather than avoid, social stimuli are more likely to have positive attitudes toward integrating with people in their host country (Matschke & Sassenberg, 2010). In some recent research, my colleagues and I investigated whether immigrants’ problem-solving style was also involved in this relationship.

We asked 137 Australian immigrants to complete measures of approach vs. avoidance orientation and independent vs. interdependent problem-solving style. To measure social integration, we then asked the immigrants to indicate (a) the proportion of Australian friends that they had, (b) how included they felt in Australian society, and (c) how satisfied they were with their employment, accommodation, and life in Australia.

We found that immigrants who had an independent problem-solving style and a strong approach orientation reported having the greatest proportion of Australian friends and feeling the most included and satisfied with their life in Australia. Based on this evidence, we believe that immigration services should encourage immigrants to (a) take charge of their own integration (i.e., independent problem-solving) and (b) make proactive efforts to achieve this integration (i.e., approach orientation) in order for them to achieve the highest levels of social integration in their host society.

For more information about this research, please see the following research article:

Rubin, M., Watt, S., & Ramelli, M. (2012). Immigrants’ social integration as a function of approach–avoidance orientation and problem-solving style International Journal of Intercultural Relations DOI: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.12.009