Editing Immigration

{{Quality|Superior}}

[[File:migrants_sprite_preview.png|right]]'''Immigration''' is the process of people from another [[site]] of your home [[civilization]] moving into your [[fortress]]. As the fortress prospers, migrants will be attracted in larger numbers, these will arrive in groups once per [[season]]. In the early seasons after establishing the outpost, a smaller migrant group of 2-10 arrives, followed by a large group in the low double digits in the second spring one year after embarking. A notification will be received upon arrival, the migrant group will spawn at the edge of the map and proceed to march into your fortress and to the nearest meeting hall.  

[[File:immigrants_v50_anim.gif|thumb|208px|right|Migrants emerging out of the map's edge.]]Each migrant can arrive with a wide collection of often unrelated skills, far greater than possible with one of the [[starting build|starting 7 dwarves]], and [[experience]] levels as high as Legendary. Any and all skills might be represented, including obscure military skills (like [[blowgunner]]), high levels of one or more [[social skill]]s, [[crutch walker]], [[concentration]] and others - it's even possible to have dwarves with skills that may not be obtainable in fortress mode, like [[tracker|tracking]] or [[Pike_(weapon)|pikedwarf]]. However, Immigrant skills are influenced by your fortress' needs — migrants with skills your fortress uses a lot, or that your fortress does not have at all, are more likely to show up at your gates. Important skills (mining, food production, and basic crafting, according to Toady) are weighed more heavily than other skills.^{[http://www.bay12games.com/media/df_talk_12_transcript.html Source] {{dot}} [http://www.bay12games.com/media/Dwarf_Fortress_Talk_12.mp3 MP3]}

The game tab under the settings menu lists a ''"Population Cap"'' setting which immediately prevents further immigration once at the desired number. This includes the two hardcoded migrant waves, but does not include babies. There is also a ''"Strict Population Cap"'' setting which prevents both immigration and babies when reached. Both can be violated by a few special cases, such as the arrival of a [[monarch]]. Keep in mind that adjusting the population caps do not adjust population requirements (such as 80 to get a king). Such requirements can be modified in the game's advanced difficulty settings for your fortress.

To reiterate, the population cap is a (mostly) hard limit on the number of dwarves in your fortress. If you want a fortress with 50 dwarves, simply set the ''"Population Cap"'' and ''"Strict Population Cap"'' settings in the game tab to 50.

The game will cull unimportant dead units eventually, see <code>CULL_DEAD_UNITS_AT</code> in [[Settings#Population_and_seed_capacities|settings]]. DFHack also has the command <code>[https://docs.dfhack.org/en/stable/docs/tools/fix/dead-units.html fix/dead-units]</code> that can clear uninteresting (unnamed) dead units from the units list and allow migrants to arrive again.

Here, migrants are sorted into tiers, ordered by usefulness to a mid-to-high-level fort. "Valuable" skills can be sorted into three categories: those that produce better-[[quality]] items, those that perform tasks faster or more efficiently, and those that simply ''cannot'' be done unskilled, such as medical tasks. Even within these categories, dwarves can be more or less valuable depending on how often their skills are needed, or how difficult it is to raise their skill.

Lists like this are always just a guide, though. When you get down to bare bedrock, the most valuable skill a dwarf can have is the one that your fortress needs the most. Even those dwarves who have no useful skills can still be useful: even very young children can [[haul]] items, any healthy adult can serve as a low-quality [[soldier]], and every adult dwarf can train useful skills over time.

*[[Weaponsmith]]s: Speak softly, but carry a [[war hammer|big stick]]. [[Quality|Well-made]] weapons are significantly more deadly than poorly-made ones, on top of being more [[Value|valuable]]. Weapons are also a great way to increase the value of [[room]]s (particularly for [[noble]]s, [[temple]]s, or [[guildhall]]s), because you can use a [[weapon trap]] to stack up to ten of them in a single tile. Skilling up weaponsmithing is time-consuming and always requires [[weapons-grade]] [[metal]] and [[fuel]] (or [[magma]]), and weapon [[artifact]]s can be some of the most useful items in the game.  

*[[Armorsmith]]s: You need quite a lot of armor for a military, so armorsmiths are almost as useful as weaponsmiths, and you generally want more of them. Weaponsmiths are still a bit more useful: armor isn't quite as quality-dependent as weapons are, it can't easily be turned into furniture except with [[display furniture]] (which can be erratic when it comes to contributing to room value and can't prevent artifacts from being [[Intrigue|stolen]]), and armor artifacts are just as likely to be something of limited usefulness, like a single boot or gauntlet.

*[[Soldier]]s: Who doesn’t need extra <s>meat shields</s> dwarfpower? If you don't have any good soldiers yet, a skilled combatant is not only useful on their own, but can also teach peasants which end of the [[spear]] goes where. Even if you do have a well-trained military, soldiers have an alarming tendency to die, so reservists are still useful.

*[[Planter]]s: Skilled growers produce larger stacks of crops. This has a cascading positive effect, making your cooks and brewers more efficient, making your [[prepared meal]]s more valuable, and cramming more food and drink into fewer [[barrel]]s or [[large pot]]s, which means less need for hauling and more-efficient use of [[stockpile]] space. While it's relatively easy to train growers on your own, skilled growers have a huge downstream effect on your whole fortress.

*[[Mechanic]]s: High-quality [[mechanism]]s don't jam when used in [[weapon trap]]s, and a [[lever]] is another way to stack many valuable items in a single tile to juice room value. If you somehow have an excess, mechanisms make great (if heavy) [[Trading#Unacceptable items|elf-friendly]] trade goods.

*[[Children]]: Cannot perform any labors. At least you will have a [[peasant]]...in about 18 years.