Immigrants’ Self-reported Life Satisfaction in Europe

Abstract

This chapter offers state-of-the-art research on self-reported life satisfaction as a subjective measure of immigrant integration, showing the most significant research findings and methodological challenges. To this end, the Chapter presents an empirical comparative analysis of self-reported life satisfaction among first-generation immigrants living in seven European countries, measuring the effect of both individual and country-level factors. Data are drawn from the Immigrant Citizens Survey (ICS), 2011–2012. The empirical results show that self-reported life satisfaction strongly depends on immigrants’ demographic characteristics and human capital factors, such as age, marital status, current economic situation and perceived financial well-being. ‘Immigration’ variables, namely legal status and country of residence also play a role in defining immigrants’ life satisfaction. As for country-level factors, proportion of non-EU foreign citizens, naturalisation rate, having the citizenship of the country of residence, unemployment rate and Human Development Index (HDI) are significant factors that influence immigrants’ self-reported life satisfaction in European countries, thus proving that not only individual characteristics but also receiving contexts matter for immigrants’ subjective well-being.