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[Shotoshop]

I've been playing a fortress for a while now, and, for some reason, it stopped attracting migrants a while ago. We had an eensie weensie slip up with some dehydration, but that was around two years ago IG. I've checked my civ and it still exists, and I get frequent visits from baron consorts, bands of musics and poets, monster hunters and such. I also have a pretty big library full of books, more than enough rooms to fit any migrant wave and enough wine to get every dwarf in the fortress drunk. Only thing I can think about is that most of my civ is on another continent. May that be the reason for which I'm not getting anyone new?

Thank you in advance

[Thisfox]

There are some hardwired migrant waves which arrive whatever happens, at the start of your fort. But if you're far from your mountainhomes and across the water, it might make it a little hard for migrants to arrive. Sometimes they just arrive late, but it looks like that's not the case here. Do check if you've fiddled with the population cap though: I've had that happen, found that my population cap was low due to a low population fort I'd been playing on purpose a while back, and fixed it that way.  However it seems that you are getting plenty of visitors, perhaps you can entice them to stay?

[Mobbstar]

The wiki suggests checking how many (u)nits are in the fortress, including slaughtered animals and defeated invaders.
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Immigration#Migrant_wave_sizes

Unfortunately I have never had problems getting migrants, nor have I ever achieved the thousands of deceased creatures mentioned on the wiki. Good luck figuring this out!

[Shotoshop]

There are some hardwired migrant waves [...] perhaps you can entice them to stay?

Yeah, I got those at the start of the fort. The problem with the visitors is that, as far as I know, they don't do any jobs, do they? I am worried that, by accepting too many visitors (which constantly ask for residence), I won't be able to produce enough of the stuff they need to live.

The wiki suggests checking how many (u)nits [...] Good luck figuring this out!

Thank you! I checked the wiki prior to asking, but, as far as I remember, I never touched the pop cap (I'm fairly new to the game, so I can be quite sure of it). Furthermore, I don't have more than... a hundred/hundred and fiftish units? I don't think they're enough.

Anyways, thank you both for your advice ^^

[PatrikLundell]

Visitors applying for residence are of a few different types:
- Performers and scholars
- Mercenaries
- Monster hunters

Performers and scholars fart around in the fortress for two years before they apply for citizenship (unless depression gets them first). Once they have been accepted as citizens they're yours to command just as any other citizen.

Mercs never apply for citizenship, but they can be put into militia squads immediately, but each squad has to be led by a citizen.

Monster hunters spend their time eating, drinking, and praying, and may eventually haul their lazy asses down into the caverns (assuming a path to them is open), littering the caverns with bits of fairly harmless cavern critters (luring dorfs down there to clean it up), before returning back up to eat/drink/pray/sleep. Eventually they'll go down into the caverns and litter them with bits of themselves, luring more dorfs to their doom as they try to clean up that mess and encounter whatever dismembered the monster hunter. I doubt monster hunters apply for citizenship, but they tend not to live long enough for anyone to find out whether they would or wouldn't.

I think the default pop cap is something like 220. However, 150 dorfs is quite a lot. Note that the population cap concerns the number of sapient units, while the number of animals goes into a separate pool.

Various things can cause migrants to fail to appear for shorter or longer stretches of time. If your fortress has seen a lot of casualties (of the fortress population, not invaders), that can scare migrants away from your death trap. Another thing thought to cause it is the mountainhome being under siege or something like that. However, there are also quite a few cases of migrants just not appearing for no known reason, and then start to appear later, again for no know reason.

[Shotoshop]

Well, then I'll keep playing and I'll try to survive with what I get. Thank you!

[Schmaven]

Trading away a bunch of wealth might entice migrants to come.  It may have been just a coincidence, but I had a dry spell of migration for a few years, and the next wave seemed to arrive after the successful trade.

[Garfunkel]

Yeah I had the same thing - one year without migrants but then I traded away quite bit of stuff for the caravan and the next year I got 15+5 migrants which was a bit of a shock.

[DoubleG]

I'm getting no migrants all the time. I thought it was because I'm a horrible overlord and their living conditions were pretty bad for some time (and still are, moistly). Maybe they haven't been coming because I've been unable to trade. I've been besieged every autumn, or the caravan hasn't made it in the fortress, for many years now.  Hopefully if one of them makes it in maybe I can reverse the decline.