Abstract
Over the past decades migration has increased dramatically. Most of the scientific literature on immigrant mental health has focussed on stress, distress and mental illness. Less attention has been paid to positive aspects in particular mental well-being. The existing studies among immigrants who move for economic, educational or personal reasons have not been systematically reviewed and analysed to provide an overview of the factors which may affect their subjective well-being. Further, we do not know the extent to which the existing integrative theory of well-being, the Theory of Sustainable Happiness (Lyobumirsky et al. in Review of General Psychology 9:111–131, 2005) derived from research on general population is substantiated by research conducted with immigrants. To address these gaps we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the determinants of well-being among international immigrants. Overall 11 studies met inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. The analyses revealed that social support and dispositional factors (e.g. optimism, self-esteem) are strongly related to well-being whilst circumstantial factors such as income or duration of migration have weak and nonsignificant relationship with it. The findings are consistent with the Theory of Sustainable Happiness (2005) which suggests that circumstantial factors account for much less variance of well-being than dispositional factors because people tend to adapt to their circumstances. The study highlights the critical role of social support and intrapersonal factors in promoting and sustaining well-being of immigrants.
Highlights
We live in a world shaped by human migration
The meta-analysis reveals that dispositional factors such as optimism, self-esteem and cognitive/behavioural factors such as social support are strong and significant determinants of well-being in immigrants
The findings support evidence from general populations that circumstantial factors account for little variance of wellbeing as compared to psychological factors
Summary
We live in a world shaped by human migration. In the last half century international migration has increased worldwide; in 2006, approximately 200 million people lived outside their place of birth, representing 3 per cent of the world population (International Organization of Migration, 2008; Polgreen & Simpson, 2009). Migrants face multiple stressors such as language barrier, new cultural norms, loss of social, familial and support networks, discrimination and underemployment (Khavarpour & Rissel, 1997; Sim, et al, 2007; Thompson, et al, 2002; Weishaar, 2008). These challenges can result in psychological distress such as anxiety and depression (Griffin & Soskolne, 2003; Huan & Spurgeon, 2006; Lindert von Ehrenstein et al, 2009; Sharma & Jaswal, 2006). Evidence supports the notion that immigrants can be healthy, resilient and able to respond positively to the potential health hazards of migration (Ali, 2002; Ng, et al, 2005; Singh & Siahpush, 2001; Stephens et al, 1994)
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