Emotional Ambivalence in the Migration Intentions of Tehran’s Youth: From the Entanglement of Conflicting Feelings to the Trauma of Decision-Making

In the contemporary world, migration is no longer merely a geographical relocation; it constitutes an emotional, uncertain, and identity-related process imbued with both hope and apprehension.This study examined the feelings of young people in Tehran regarding emigration from Iran, using grounded theory methodology.In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 young residents of Tehran, selected through purposive and snowball sampling.Data analysis yielded 108 open codes, 29 subcategories, 9 main categories, and one core category.The categories included: Suspended Identity (the dilemma of staying or leaving, fear of regret); Fantasy Dreaming or Mythical Utopias (geographical psychosis); Roots of the Desire to Leave (from minor frustrations to the pursuit of an unrealized self); Commodification, Consumerism, and the Subject-Making of Economic Success; Instagram's Performative Representation of Migrant Life (reality to spectacle); Strategies (from migration regulations to withdrawing from everyday activities); and Consequences (from anxiety and excitement to uncertainty).The core category was identified as "The Problem of Youth Migration: from the Entanglement of Contradictory Emotions to the Desire for an Imagined Elsewhere."A paradigm model was developed.Findings indicate that fear, stress, and doubt are deeply embedded in decision-making about migration.For some young people, migration represents a fusion of dreams and anxieties: a movement from aspects of a dissatisfied self toward an uncertain destination, entrapping them in the dilemma of leaving or staying, and of being and becoming.