Denial, Deterrence, and Disenchantment: Why Many Do Not Immigrate

Based on survey and interview data from over 2,500 potential immigrants from mainland China, this book contributes novel data, knowledge, and theories about potential immigrants – those who might have immigrated but did not due to social forces and immigration policy. The text examines three mechanisms: governments denying visas, policies and social forces deterring many from applying for visas, and potential immigrants becoming disenchanted with immigration. Thomas expands the push-pull model to a push-retain-pull-repel model that helps explain why many do not immigrate. Potential immigrants confront an (im)mobility paradox: factors facilitating migration – socioeconomic resources and social ties – also hinder it. Finally, this book illustrates how different types of potential immigrants are socioeconomically stratified relative to one another and to immigrants.

Jacob Richard Thomas (PhD, UCLA) is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department of Corvinus University of Budapest and a Research Fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Migration and Development. His mixed-methods research addresses important questions of why more people do not migrate or travel internationally than we observe in the world today, what affects migrant selectivity, what constrains the state’s ability to control migration, and how migratory opportunities are stratified along a diverse range of intersecting social dimensions. He has published research in peer-reviewed journals such as Theory and Society, International Migration Review, European Journal of Sociology, Chinese Political Science Review, International Journal of Sociology, Symbolic Interaction, and International Political Science Review

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