Life Satisfaction of Indian Immigrants in Canada

Abstract

It is a common conception that immigrants face numerous problems and considerable stress in the process of adjustment to a new culture. The life satisfaction of immigrants from India was assessed using the Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener et al., 1985). As predicted by judgment theory (Micholas, 1986), it was found that Indian immigrants judge their own well-being in comparison to relevant others, such as their peers back home, the majority white community in Canada and other Indian immigrants. Their satisfaction was also predicted by the discrepancy between what they have in Canada and what they feel they could have had if they had stayed in India, with respect to raising children, freedom in making day-to-day decisions, opportunity to realise personal goals and amount of respect. Life satisfaction was correlated with perceived discrimination, guilt over leaving the country of birth and perception of social support, but not with education, socio-economic status, or perception of day-to-day comforts.