Although their younger forms of Dratini and Dragonair are typically found in East Asia, Dragonite are most commonly found halfway around the world, in the continent of Europe. This migration is unusual in that it does not go north-south with the seasons, like many bird pokemon, but east-west, and with age like an insect. Many people have speculated as to what draws Dragonite away from home, and why they return to breed.
At first it was thought that they departed for a land where dragons were less feared, for they have always been friends to man and wished to avoid tragic misunderstandings, but increased cultural contact confirmed that the west was as fearful as the east. Nor was the region less dangerous, for the cold reaches of Scandinavia and Russia teemed with ice pokemon, and they settled there as surely as in Kalos and Italy. And it could not be for food, for Dragonite can eat virtually anything.
Dragonite migrate not for purpose, but for ritual. They are devout in their worship of the dragon gods, who are only worshiped by humans in Sinnoh. Dialga and Palkia have given Dragonite a strong belief in the natural order of space-time, and at some point this must have become associated with migration. Perhaps in the distant past, a Dragonite priest noticed that Japan could not support their growing population, and sanctified emigration of newly evolved Dragonite, who unlike their old forms were old enough to make the journey, to a "holy" land with a similar climate. Perhaps they were required to return home to reproduce, so that future generations could be bound by a common homeland. And perhaps in time pilgrimage became custom, and then an obligated rite of passage, for they have migrated as if they were Butterfree for millennia.
