Journal of Identity and Migration Studies (Nov 2007)
Central and Eastern Europeans Migrants’ Subjective Quality of Life. A Comparative Study
Abstract
There is no general agreement among scholars on the consequences oflabor migration on the sending countries. Some argue that the migration would increase the quality of life of the families or communities involved, giving support for democracy and market reforms in these countries, while others share the view that the brain drain and fiscal losses would have long term effects on the sending countries’ development. This paper takes another approach, focusing on the migrant persons’ subjective quality of life.Using data issued in the first two rounds of the European Social Survey (2002/2003, 2004/2005), the Eastern European immigrants’ satisfaction with their lives as a whole and with the social and political environment is measured. They report lower satisfaction with life as a whole, but higher satisfaction with the societal conditions than the natives and other kind of immigrants. Explanation lies in the different sources of these evaluations:when evaluating their overall satisfaction, the immigrants rely on their experiences in their receiving countries, while when evaluating the societal conditions they compare these to those from the sending countries. The fact that they show higher levels of satisfaction with the societal conditions than the other immigrants also supports this hypothesis, because the former are more recent and less accommodated to the receiving society than the latter.
