International Migration and the (Un)happiness Push: Evidence from Polish Longitudinal Data

Abstract

This article analyzes the impact of (un)happiness on the international migration decision. It uses a rich longitudinal household-level database, the Polish Social Diagnosis, to identify migration intentions, as well as subsequent actual migration, allowing us to overcome the issue of reverse causality present in previous studies of the nexus between happiness and migration. In addition, we assess the role of individual and household levels of happiness on migration behaviors and find that unhappy individuals from unhappy households are significantly more likely to declare their intentions to migrate abroad. In terms of actual migration, however, the unhappiness push significantly affects the odds of international migration only for selected subgroups, such as women and employed individuals. For other individuals, the unhappiness-induced migration plans remain mostly unrealized. Our article shows that push and pull factors, including happiness, might exert heterogenous effects on migration intentions and actual realizations. As a consequence, migration scholars should be careful when drawing conclusions on the determinants of actual migration behaviors by looking at determinants of migration intentions.

Happiness and Migration

“…Correlational evidence consistently shows that relatively unhappy people have more frequently both a desire and the intention to emigrate, even after accounting for standard predictors of migration such as socio-demographic and economic characteristics and having a network abroad (Brzozowski and Coniglio 2021;Migali and Scipioni 2019;Graham and Nikolova 2018;Ruyssen and Salomone 2018;Cai et al 2014;Lovo 2014;Otrachshenko and Popova 2014;Chindarkar 2014;Graham and Markowitz 2011). To exemplify, the unconditional difference on the 11-point Cantril ladder-of-life scale between people with and without migration aspirations is approximately a half point in Europe (Lovo 2014) and two-tenths of a point in Latin America (Graham and Nikolova 2018).…”

“…Second, there is limited evidence about how individual-level happiness relates to actual emigration behavior rather than emigration aspirations/intentions. Using Polish panel data, Brzozowski and Coniglio (2021) shows that the greater intent to migrate among unhappier Polish individuals within and between households translates into more actual migration only for selected subgroups, such as women and employed individuals. Although also in this case the absence of a main effect may not generalize to other contexts because of the exceptionally weak link in Eastern Europe (Lovo 2014), this finding suggests that happiness may shape individuals' willingness and intention to emigrate more than their actual migration behavior, at least in Poland.…”

“…Much remains to be learned about the bi-causal relationship between happiness and migration. Major progress in understanding the role of happiness as a cause of migration can be achieved by further exploring (a) how strongly the expected happiness consequences of migration influence migration decisions (thereby building on Benjamin et al 2014b); (b) the role of individual happiness levels on actual emigration behavior rather than emigration aspirations/intentions (thereby building on Brzozowski and Coniglio (2021); (c) the relative importance of happiness compared with other standard predictors of individual-level migration decisions; (d) causal evidence through panel, experimental, or instrumental variable designs to better establish the causal effect of happiness on migration; (e) whether a possible happiness dip before migration is caused by people moving to overcome the dip or because anticipating migration causes a dip; and (f) the role of the happiness of family members left behind in triggering people to migrate to support their families back home.…”

Understanding Integration Experience and Wellbeing of Economic-Asylum Seekers in Italy: the Case of Nigerian Immigrants

“…In line with the literature (Chen et al, 2019;Knight & Gunatilaka, 2010;Mähönen et al, 2013;Stillman et al, 2015), we opined that the expectation gap is also associated with the low SWB they reported. Intuitively, considering that many of these economic-asylum seekers migrate from Nigeria due to their perceived capability deprivation and low life satisfaction in the country, coupled with the challenges they face on transit, they should have had higher life satisfaction in Italy, even when living in institutional limbo (Brzozowski & Coniglio, 2021). Besides the barriers they face, two additional factors may explain the low life satisfaction the economic-asylum seekers perceive in Italy: a priming effect and bounded rationality.…”

Happiness and international migration – The spatial dimension of a relationship

“…Some researchers have pointed out that happiness can have a heterogeneous effect on individuals’ migration intentions and actual realisations (Brzozowski and Coniglio, 2021).…”