The existing migration sociology literature predominantly explains migration decision‐making through rational frameworks (socioeconomic factors), often influenced by Western (scientific) bias, neglecting other relevant subjective factors. By relying on data collected through interviews with 60 potential migrants in the Gambia, I go beyond these socioeconomic explanations and identify a key ideational factor – predestination thinking – as an important factor that influences migration decision‐making, especially concerning the perception of risk associated with irregular migration among potential migrants. This article demonstrates how predestination thinking influences different aspects of potential migrants' decision‐making, including the decision to embark on an irregular migration trajectory, risk assessment, and the nature of family support provided to a potential migrant. I argue that non‐conventional, intangible factors such as predestination thinking cannot be neglected when explaining migration decision‐making, especially in societies with embedded belief systems. This article contributes to a more nuanced and holistic understanding of migration decision‐making beyond Western‐centred perspectives.

中文翻译：

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“即使我要死，我也必须走”：了解宿命思维对冈比亚移民决策的影响


现有的移民社会学文献主要通过理性框架（社会经济因素）解释移民决策，往往受到西方（科学）偏见的影响，忽视了其他相关的主观因素。通过对冈比亚 60 名潜在移民进行访谈收集的数据，我超越了这些社会经济解释，并确定了一个关键的观念因素——预定思维——作为影响移民决策的重要因素，尤其是与移民相关的风险认知相关的因素。潜在移民中的非正常移民。本文展示了宿命思维如何影响潜在移民决策的不同方面，包括走上不规则移民轨迹的决定、风险评估以及为潜在移民提供的家庭支持的性质。我认为，在解释移民决策时，特别是在具有根深蒂固的信仰体系的社会中，不能忽视非传统的、无形的因素，例如宿命思维。本文有助于超越以西方为中心的观点，对移民决策有更细致、更全面的理解。