The article addresses challenges of migration and immigrant integration in different cultures and times using case studies and supporting the conclusions by fieldwork. It focuses on the situation in today’s Central Europe, treats migration as a worldwide phenomenon and identifies factors shared by migrants during decision making and constructing homeland images. Specifically, the author inspects migration history of four distinct ethnic groups, that of Czechs, Germans, Slovaks and Vietnamese, to two different destinations, i.e., Texas and Czech Republic, in two different periods of mid 19th and second half of the 20th century. She discusses perspectives of multiethnic and multilingual future of Central Europe; views migration as a complex historical phenomenon that involves collective identities as well as individual minds, memories and decisions; poses the question of what inspires people to migrate and how memories of one’s homeland affect decisions to stay in migration or to return; draws on memories and identities embedded in personal narratives and communities; examplifies the drama of migration on stories in personal letters and community narratives; and in conclusion offers a theory of migration that accounts for costs and gains in relation to migrant visions and negotiation powers of migrants and receivers. The study highlights positive outcomes of Slovak integration in Czech Republic in context of contacts and conflicts between Southern and Northern Korea.