Emigration

Emigration is the central ideological and practical mechanism in the post-apocalyptic world of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, presented as the only viable alternative to the radioactive contamination of Earth. Governed by the United Nations, emigration to colony worlds like Mars is incentivized by the promise of a free android servant and enforced by the threat of being classified as a 'special'—a biologically or mentally unfit individual barred from leaving. The system creates a stark divide between those who can escape Earth's decay and those who are condemned to remain, shaping the lives of every character from the bounty hunter Rick Deckard to the 'chickenhead' John Isidore.

The U.N. Emigration Program and Its Incentives

The United Nations made emigration easy and staying on Earth difficult, using a dual strategy of carrot and stick. The carrot was the android servant: under U.N. law, each emigrant automatically received possession of an android subtype of their choice, a custom-tailored humanoid robot designed for their unique needs. By 1990, the variety of subtypes had proliferated, becoming the ultimate incentive for leaving Earth. The stick was the radioactive fallout from World War Terminus, which made remaining on Earth a health hazard. The government's slogan, blared by posters, TV ads, and junk mail, was "Emigrate or degenerate! The choice is yours!" This campaign framed emigration not merely as an option but as a moral and biological imperative.

The Consequences of Staying: The 'Special' Classification

Those who failed to emigrate risked being classified as 'special,' a designation that stripped them of their place in society. A citizen pegged as biologically unacceptable—a menace to the pristine heredity of the race—dropped out of history, even if they accepted sterilization. The radioactive dust continually created new specials out of regulars, and monthly medical checkups could reveal that a person could no longer reproduce within legal tolerances. John Isidore, a 'chickenhead' who failed the minimum mental faculties test, embodies this fate. He cannot emigrate because of his classification, and he is forced to live in a decaying, nearly empty building, surrounded by the silence and kipple of a world that has moved on without him.

Emigration as a Class and Economic Divide

The ability to emigrate is also a matter of economics and profession. Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter for the San Francisco Police Department, cannot emigrate because of his job, which requires him to stay on Earth to hunt down escaped androids. He is trapped, forced to endure the daily dose of radioactive dust and the constant fear of being reclassified. His desire to own a real animal—a symbol of status and life—is directly tied to his work; he hopes to earn enough bounty money to buy a real sheep or a goat, a goal that remains perpetually out of reach. In contrast, those who can afford to leave, like Iran Deckard's father, who gave the couple a real sheep before emigrating, escape the physical and social decay. The system thus reinforces a class hierarchy, where the wealthy and healthy can flee, while the poor and the 'special' are left behind.

The Martian Reality and the Android's Perspective

The promise of a better life on Mars is revealed to be hollow. Pris Stratton, an android who fled Mars with her group, describes it as an awful place, much lonelier than Earth. She and her friends lived in a settlement near New New York, where Roy Baty ran a drugstore and she relied on synthetic painkillers. The androids, created to serve the colonists, are themselves lonely and seek a better life, which is why they occasionally kill their masters and flee to Earth. The Rosen Association, the manufacturer of the Nexus-6 androids, follows the time-honored principle of commercial venture, producing progressively more human types to meet the colonists' demands. This creates a paradox: the very incentive for emigration—the android servant—becomes a source of danger when those servants escape and return to Earth, forcing bounty hunters like Deckard to hunt them down.

The Enduring Significance of Emigration

Emigration is not just a plot device but a foundational element of the novel's world-building and thematic structure. It defines the social hierarchy, the legal system, and the personal aspirations of every character. The choice to emigrate or stay is a choice between life and death, hope and despair, humanity and degeneracy. The system's failure to provide a genuine escape—Mars is as lonely and barren as Earth, and the androids are as trapped as the humans—underscores the novel's bleak vision of a world where no true salvation exists, only different forms of decay and servitude. Even the electric toad that Deckard finds at the novel's end, a symbol of life in the desert, is revealed to be artificial, a final reminder that the promise of a new beginning, like emigration itself, is an illusion.