To some observers from the developed world, a new transmigration settlement may appear bleak, barren and uninviting. Bare wooden houses sitting in rows on dirt plots along dusty roads have little appeal. But experience has shown that in an amazingly short time, the new occupants very few of whom ever had a house or land of their own transform their surroundings. They add porches, some of which become small shops and restaurants. Some produce red tiles for roofs, plant flowers as well as vegetables, line paths with decorative objects, add columns and gates, build fences and create personal, hospitable environments as they transform houses into homes.

Although new settlers, like farmers everywhere, occasionally complain about the weather or the soil, few of them return to their native villages. When asked whether they wish to leave their new settlement and return to their old village, the answer, invariably is "No. I have a house and land of my own. We have a clinic. My children go to school; they will be better off. Why should I want to leave?"

Sentiments such as these, expressed repeatedly by transmigrants throughout the islands on which they settle, are a better gauge of the program’s success than all the statistics of income and production that are used to justify transmigration.