migrating from older intel macbook air to new m4 macbook pro

The difference in architecture is not relevant. Read Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support.

Programs written for older Macs and that have not been updated might not work.

As far as we can tell, Migration Assistant works for all older macOS, at least as far back as macOS 10.6, and probably older.

The only thing that is NOT supported is creating an Ad Hoc faster private Wi-Fi connection for Macs running older than 10.12 Sierra.