To demonstrate the complexities and contradictions laid out in the previous chapter, Chapter 5 zooms in on a colonial scheme to “transplant” – colonial lingo – Rwandans to Masisi (nowadays in North Kivu) to provide labor for the colonial plantations there. Commonly known as “le MIB” (Mission d’Immigration des Banyarwanda), a name that it only started to carry in the second phase, this chapter focuses on the first phase of this scheme between 1937 and 1948. This scheme is often seen as one of the origins of North Kivu’s endemic conflicts, but many details remain shrouded in vagueness. In the first chapter of this book focusing on this scheme, the motivations and experiences of Rwandan immigrants within the broader context of historical mobility and court politics are analyzed. In doing so the chapter argues that many migrants, especially those from the northern extremities of Lake Kivu, were “willing migrants,” exploiting colonial policies for personal interests. It demonstrates that at least for a considerable part of these migrants, labor mobility was not solely a result of colonial initiatives or coercion but also rooted in nineteenth-century patterns of mobility, and often based on previous connections. In doing so, it adds nuance to simplistic narratives of longstanding antagonisms between “autochthons” and newcomers.