Migration and Happiness: Evidence from Germany
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Migration and Happiness: Evidence from Germany Mrittika Shamsuddin1 · Marina‑Selini Katsaiti2
© Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract With a shrinking population and a rising dependency ratio, Germany needs young migrants, willing and able to integrate with the German society and actively participate in its economic progress. In order to devise successful immigration and integration policies, policymakers should be aware of the factors affecting migrants’ intentions and decisions. In this paper we explore the impact of different measures of subjective well-being on the intended duration of migration stay. Unlike previous research that focused on a binary outcomes of stay intentions, we utilize more detailed data on the year length of intended stay. This way we are able to estimate the marginal effects of happiness on each additional year of stay. With and without addressing endogeneity and sample selection, we find that migrants who are happy with life tend to stay permanently in the host country. Our results also suggest that spouse residence location, education and personal income affect male intentions to stay, while peer income and number of children affect female intentions to stay. Keywords Life satisfaction · Subjective well-being · Temporary migration · Germany
1 Introduction Although 20% of the population in Germany has migration background, popular political concerns in Germany indicate that the majority of the migrants is insufficiently integrated (Elger et al. 2009). A recent study by the Berlin Institute finds that immigrants tend to be less educated, more frequently unemployed and less likely to participate in public life, relative to the German born population. This study also finds that families of those who came as guests or temporary workers are also less integrated than others. With a shrinking population and a rising dependency ratio (Preston 2015), Germany needs young migrants, not to burden the society, but to toil and drive the economy forward. Thus, an efficient and sustainable integration policy should aim to attract legal migrants, interested in staying * Marina‑Selini Katsaiti [email protected] 1
Department of Economics, Dalhousie University, P.O. BOX 15000, 6214 University Avenue, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
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Department of Economics and Finance, United Arab Emirates University, P.O. BOX 15551, Al Ain, UAE
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M. Shamsuddin, M.-S. Katsaiti
permanently and participating fully in the society (Federal Ministry of the Interior 2014). In order to devise effective integration policies, it is essential to understand the factors affecting immigrants’ decisions or intentions to stay permanently. For example, those who feel rejected by the German society will be less willing to integrate and will consider themselves as foreigners even long after they have migrated. This paper explores how different aspects of subjective well-being (SWB) affect migrants’ duration of stay intentions. According to recent OECD (2008) estimates, 20–50% of immigrants leave the
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