| Theory | Epistemological origin | Conceptual formulation |
| Grief and Bereavement | Psychoanalytic tradition | Sees migration as experience of and adaptation to loss |
| Locus of Control | Applied social psychology | Control (Internal/External) predict migration adaptation |
| Selective migration | Socio-biology | Individual fitness and motivation predicts adaptation |
| Expectations | Applied social psychology | Expectancy-values relate to reasons for migration and adjustment |
| Negative life-events | Clinical psychology | Migration involves many stressful life changes, |
| Social support | Clinical psychology | Social and emotional support offers a buffering effect |
| Value difference | Social psychology | Implicit and explicit alue differences lead to poor adaptation |
| Social skills and culture learning | Social psychology | Lacking social skills may cause constant communication problems |