What is the Relationship Between the Perceived Quality of Neighbourhood and the Self-reported Life Satisfaction in Immigrants Versus Natives in Europe?

Abstract

Subjective well-being (SWB) is emerging as an important measure of individual and societal progress. Among the many individual factors associated with SWB, the quality of the neighbourhood is recently receiving growing attention as a factor shaping self-reported life satisfaction in contemporary societies. However, to the best of our knowledge, studies focusing on the perceived quality of the neighbourhood are still scant. We aim to fill this gap, comparing self-reported life satisfaction of different population groups (i.e., immigrants and natives) living in European countries, and to analyse the association between self-reported life satisfaction and the perceived quality of the neighbourhood, controlling for individual socio-demographic and human capital variables and socio-economic characteristics of the country of residence. The data are drawn from the cross-sectional European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) of 2016. Our findings reveal that first and second-generation immigrants report lower self-reported life satisfaction compared to natives. Moreover, our findings show that the positive subjective evaluation of the characteristics and services available in the immediate neighbourhood where people live is positively associated with self-reported life satisfaction. There is also a positive relationship between contacts and social networks in the neighbourhood and self-reported life satisfaction. Finally, the characteristics of the country of residence matter for both native and immigrants’ life satisfaction, with immigrants being more satisfied in countries with higher quality of life captured by country gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, life expectancy and unemployment rate.