Happiness and Emigration as A Challenge to Albanian University Youth: A National Level Case

Abstract

Aim: The research article aims to analyse happiness as the primary indicator of the current emigration potential of university youth. The challenges of decision-making of Albanian university youth to emigrate tease out the social, political and economic factors as indicators to decrease the level of happiness in terms of personal (being happy with life in general, with life, with family life in the last four years) and in social perspective such as being happy with economic status and house/shelter, the level of satisfaction with current life (standards of living), and the level of trust (in political and governmental institutions; in people, friends and media), as the pushing factors to potential emigration of youth. Methods: To guarantee a national-level measurement of the university youth emigration potential, due to the mentioned indicators, the empirical data gained from the quantitative online survey research on the measurement of opinions of (N=1010) Albanian university youth, at the national level of (N=7) (all) public universities in Albania, in (N=13) departments on social sciences profile, analysed by the Statistical program IMB SPSS 26, in different statistical approach analysis, such as descriptive, frequency, cross-tabs and Kurtosis. Results: Many measurement indicators show that personal and social levels of happiness reflect on a ‘low level of subjective well-being, unsatisfaction subjective well-being and dissatisfaction with life and living conditions that decrease the level of trust and security for life, and proxy dimensions of emigration decision (intention and concrete plan to migrate) of university youth. Conclusion: The low satisfaction (with life and living conditions), and low trust in the state bodies and political institutions, due to the current, social, political and economic conditions, formed an elation among the variables, on the conclusion that happiness is the main push factor and a challenge for potential emigration of university youth as high skilled worker, in the next years.