Immigration history is not just about government policy and regulations. It is mostly about the efforts of humble people with talent in search of opportunity. It is also about people fleeing political persecution or displaced and in search of a new home because of war. People need to make a living and create worlds of meaning in all kinds of different situations. Often, each person relies on the help of others: family, friends and fellow immigrants from the same heritage.
Each great migration includes both migrants who intend to sojourn, and those who wish to settle. A Sojourner is someone who stays for a short time, for a year or two, to earn money and go back to their original homeland once they have earned some money to buy land, arrange a marriage or open a small store.
Government legislation and regulations, as well as changing realities in the sending and receiving countries, shape and reshape the individual’s migration decisions in terms of the reason for going, the preselected target, and the planned length of the sojourn.
The migrant is forced to try to arrangiarsi, or make do with what they can find, as Italian immigrants in North American might put it. That is, he or she must find caring ways that make sense to carry out a migration project. This also means doing his or her duty to family and friends such as earning money to help your sister build a dowry or helping cousins gain entry with your help through your sponsorship. This is often called chain migration because the metaphor of a chain suggest that people are linked together, in this case by common heritage, to help one another travel from one place of origin to a new migration target. Making do is also about maintaining an acceptable lifestyle with enough food, shelter and kin and friendship support in the face of slow and difficult government bureaucracies, legal obstructions, and sometimes hostile environments.