Life Satisfaction of Immigrants and Length of Stay in the New Country

IF 1.7 Q2 SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY

Social Sciences Pub Date : 2023-11-25 DOI:10.3390/socsci12120655

M. Ainsaar

{"title":"Life Satisfaction of Immigrants and Length of Stay in the New Country","authors":"M. Ainsaar","doi":"10.3390/socsci12120655","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"A large amount of research is dedicated to the measurement of immigration trends and integration processes, but comparative studies of the components of immigrants’ well-being are rare. This paper investigates the link between the length of stay and the subjective well-being (SWB) of immigrants. A step-by-step regression method is used to understand interactions between different individual- and macro-level factors in the life satisfaction of immigrants. The results of the European Social Survey (ESS) show that the effect of length of stay on SWB is mitigated by numerous individual- and country-level variables. After all background variables are considered, newly arrived immigrants and those who have been in the new country for more than 20 years had a similar life satisfaction to that of the local-born population. Immigrants with 10 to 20 years’ experience in the country seem to have lower life satisfaction than the local-born population. The SWB of different immigrant groups is shaped by cultural background, economic coping, number of social contacts, perception of discrimination, and democracy. These factors influence the life satisfaction of migrants with different lengths of stay differently. The most vulnerable immigrant groups in Europe are those from Africa region.","PeriodicalId":37714,"journal":{"name":"Social Sciences","volume":"12 33","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12120655","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

A large amount of research is dedicated to the measurement of immigration trends and integration processes, but comparative studies of the components of immigrants’ well-being are rare. This paper investigates the link between the length of stay and the subjective well-being (SWB) of immigrants. A step-by-step regression method is used to understand interactions between different individual- and macro-level factors in the life satisfaction of immigrants. The results of the European Social Survey (ESS) show that the effect of length of stay on SWB is mitigated by numerous individual- and country-level variables. After all background variables are considered, newly arrived immigrants and those who have been in the new country for more than 20 years had a similar life satisfaction to that of the local-born population. Immigrants with 10 to 20 years’ experience in the country seem to have lower life satisfaction than the local-born population. The SWB of different immigrant groups is shaped by cultural background, economic coping, number of social contacts, perception of discrimination, and democracy. These factors influence the life satisfaction of migrants with different lengths of stay differently. The most vulnerable immigrant groups in Europe are those from Africa region.

查看原文本刊更多论文

移民的生活满意度与在新国家的逗留时间

大量研究致力于衡量移民趋势和融入进程，但对移民福祉组成部分的比较研究却很少见。本文研究了移民的居留时间与主观幸福感（SWB）之间的联系。本文采用逐步回归法来了解移民生活满意度中不同个体因素和宏观因素之间的相互作用。欧洲社会调查（ESS）的结果表明，许多个人和国家层面的变量减轻了逗留时间对生活满意度的影响。在考虑了所有背景变量后，新到移民和在新国家居住 20 年以上的移民的生活满意度与当地出生人口的生活满意度相似。在该国居住 10 至 20 年的移民的生活满意度似乎低于当地出生人口。不同移民群体的 SWB 受文化背景、经济应对能力、社会接触数量、歧视感和民主等因素的影响。这些因素对不同居留时间的移民的生活满意度有不同的影响。欧洲最弱势的移民群体是来自非洲地区的移民。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Social Sciences Social Sciences-Social Sciences (all)

CiteScore

2.60

自引率

5.90%

发文量

494

审稿时长

11 weeks

期刊介绍： Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760) is an international, peer-reviewed, quick-refereeing open access journal published online monthly by MDPI. The journal seeks to appeal to an interdisciplinary audience and authorship which focuses upon real world research. It attracts papers from a wide range of fields, including anthropology, criminology, geography, history, political science, psychology, social policy, social work, sociology, and more. With its efficient and qualified double-blind peer review process, Social Sciences aims to present the newest relevant and emerging scholarship in the field to both academia and the broader public alike, thereby maintaining its place as a dynamic platform for engaging in social sciences research and academic debate. Subject Areas: Anthropology, Criminology, Economics, Education, Geography, History, Law, Linguistics, Political science, Psychology, Social policy, Social work, Sociology, Other related areas.