Maybe different notions about the meaning and use of terms such as
"failures" and "losers" are the real issue here. I am not denying the role
of push factors that sometimes included extreme poverty, social
discrimination, political defeat, and the like. But I would hesitate to
call all or most of the migrants driven by such experiences failures or
losers. Almost by definition, push factors are "bad" experiences or
conditions, while pull factors reflect some promise of improvement. How we
describe any immigrants should depend on our assessment of both sets of
factors (and what transpires where they end up). Ceteris paribus, I would
still argue that migrating to a new home thousands of miles away takes
some initiative, even courage, and reflects if nothing else a desire to
survive and to improve. Every flow of migration will have its own special
character, though, which means other things are *not* usually equal.

Doug

Douglas Deal
Professor of History and Chair of History Department
State University of New York at Oswego
Oswego, NY 13126
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(315)-312-5632

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