I'm a Californian who spent time living in Florida, but when it came time for me to pull up stakes and get the family out of LaLa Land, I chose the Lone Star State.
We are talking about Illinois though. Too much culture shock for a move to Texas. They should go to Floriduh on a probationary status, and if they can demonstrate nominal levels of patriotism and free market ideas, then they might be good enough for Texas.
We have had far too much blue added to our state recently and it is worrying me.
If the Illinois emigrants come out of the large cities, I would tend to agree with you. Even though I had a decidedly non-urban frame of mind, and was very tuned in to flyover country values and culture, I still had a tough adjustment period after moving to Texas.
In the first year we were here, we knew of at least one family from the north-east who failed to adjust to Texas, and wound up moving to Tennessee.
I know a contractor who is originally from Chicago. He's been here for almost a decade, but still seems un-adjusted to Texas culture. I once asked him about that, and he told me that the economy is the only thing that keeps him here.