Abstract
Despite growing academic and policy interest in the subjective well-being consequences of emigration for those left behind, existing studies have focused on single origin countries or specific world regions. Our study is the first to offer a global perspective on the well-being consequences of emigration for those staying behind using several subjective well-being measures (evaluations of best possible life, positive affect, stress, and depression). Drawing upon Gallup World Poll data for 114 countries during 2009-2011, we find that both having family members abroad and receiving remittances are positively associated with evaluative well-being (evaluations of best possible life) and positive affect (measured by an index of variables related to experiencing positive feelings at a particular point in time). Our analysis provides novel results showing that remittances are particularly beneficial for evaluative well-being in less developed and more unequal contexts; in richer countries, only the out-migration of family members is positively associated with life evaluations, while remittances have no additional association. We also find that having household members abroad is linked with increased stress and depression, which are not offset by remittances. The out-migration of family members appears more traumatic in contexts where migration is less common, such as more developed countries, and specific world regions, such as Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as among women. Relying on subjective well-being measures, which reflect both material and non-material aspects of life and are broad measures of well-being, allows us to provide additional insights and a more well-rounded picture of the possible consequences of emigration on migrant family members staying behind relative to standard outcomes employed in the literature, such as the left-behind’s consumption, income or labor market responses.
Highlights
Owing to high migration costs, strict migration policies, and uncertain conditions at the destination, international migrants often leave family members in the countries of origin (Démurger 2015)
We offer the first global perspective on the well-being consequences of emigration for those staying behind using several subjective well-being measures
Using the Gallup World Poll data for 114 countries during 2009–2011, we find that having family members abroad is associated with greater evaluative well-being and positive affect, and receiving remittances is linked with further increases in evaluative well-being, especially in poorer contexts—both across and within countries
Summary
Owing to high migration costs, strict migration policies, and uncertain conditions at the destination, international migrants often leave family members in the countries of origin (Démurger 2015). Migrants can change norms, attitudes, and behaviors back home Examples of such non-monetary, or social (Levitt 1998), remittances include the effects of emigration on political participation (Chauvet and Mercier 2014), corruption behavior (Ivlevs and King 2017), fertility (Beine et al 2013), and civic engagement (Nikolova et al 2017). While not all studies point to superior socio-economic, behavioral, and health outcomes for those left behind, migration and remittances have been increasingly recognized as important development tools for the origin countries (Skeldon 2008; UNDP 2009). A study on Ghana, Angola, and Nigeria (Mazzucato et al 2015) reveals that changing caregivers due to the out-migration of family members negatively affects children’s psychological well-being (a composite measure of psychological distress derived from the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman 1997)); in addition, the type of migration (internal or international) and which parent migrates matters in some country contexts but not others. Fathers’ migration is associated with children’s conduct problems in Thailand and Moldova (E. Graham and Jordan 2011; Vanore et al 2015) but not in China, where father-only migration is linked with a lower likelihood of problem behaviors among children (Wen et al 2015)
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