1. A method comprising: receiving a data representation containing data from a source database; applying a field map to a first element and a second element in the data representation to identify a first schema element and a second schema element, respectively, in a schema; using a hierarchical relationship between the first schema element and the second schema element that is described in the schema to construct a hierarchical data representation comprising the first schema element and the second schema element; determining that a first database object associated with the first schema element should be instantiated before a second database object associated with the second schema element based on the hierarchical relationship between the first schema element and the second schema element in the hierarchical data representation; ensuring that the first database object for the destination database has been created and stored; and creating and storing the second database object for the destination database based on the second schema element.