Immigrants life satisfaction in Europe: between assimilation and discrimination

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Immigrants life satisfaction in Europe between
assimilation and discrimination

• Mirna SAFI
• OSC, Sciences-Po/CNRS
• Crest, Insee

Sociology Seminar Oxford University 3rd November
2008
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Introduction

• Recent research on attitude towards immigration
  in Europe (Schneider 2008 , Bail 2008, O Connell
  2005 )
• Very rare studies on the immigrants attitudes
  themselves and their subjective perceptions of
  their own lives in host countries

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The impact of ethnic and racial characteristics
on life satisfaction

• Life satisfaction differences between Blacks and
  Whites in the United-states  The continuing
  significance of race  (Hugues and Thomas, 8696)
  
• The specificity of immigrants life satisfaction
  in comparison with the racial studies
• Is there a psychological effect of migration? Is
  there a specific psychology of immigration?
  (Berry, 2001)

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How to explain the lower level of immigrants
life satisfaction? Theoretical perspectives

• Their cultural and psychological assimilation
  (Handlin,5166) (Richardson 6774) (Sayad, 75)
• over time
• and generations
• Their durable objective inferiorization
• Ethnic penalties (Castles and Kosack,1973, Heath
  and Yu, 2005)
• Segmented assimilation (Gordon, 1964 Portes and
  Zhou, 1993 Safi, 2008)
• The key role of perceived discrimination (Vega
  and Rumbaut, 1991, Rumbaut, 1994 Hugues and
  Thomas,1986-1998 Hugues and Demo, 1989)

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Hypotheses of this study

• The assimilation framework
• Immigrants are less satisfied with their lives
  than natives
• But the differences diminish with length of stay
  and across generations
• The discrimination effect
• Dissatisfaction with life may endure for some
  ethnic groups if they are exposed to
  discrimination
• Perceived discrimination accounts for an
  important part of the differences in life
  satisfaction levels between immigrants and
  natives
• Methodology difficulties in measuring the
  association between discrimination and life
  satisfaction

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The data

• Three ESS waves (2002, 2004, 2006)
• 13 European countries
• AS, BE, DK, FR, DE, IE, NL, NO, PT, UK, ES, SE,
  
• CH

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Immigrants and their descendants in ESS
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Life satisfaction of immigrant generations
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Regression models

• Variables of interest immigrant generations,
  ethnic variables, discrimination
• Control variables
• Three sets of variables well-documented in the
  literature on the determinants of life
  satisfaction
• Socio-demographic factors gender, age,
  education, family relations, etc.
• Socio-economic factors unemployment, income
• Health factors physical and mental health

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Findings 1 Testing for the assimilation hypothesis
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Findings 2 Testing for the effect of perceived
discrimination
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Findings 2 Testing for the effect of perceived
discrimination
Perceived discrimination is probably more linked
to the ethnic group than to the immigrant
generations
The general question on discrimination Would you
describe yourself as being a member of a group
that is discriminated against in the country?
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Findings 3 The effect of discrimination
(single equation model)
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Measuring the effect of perceived discrimination

• Estimating the effect of discrimination in a
  single regression model endogeneity and
  individual heterogeneities
• Simultaneous equations model (Maddala, 1983)
• First stage estimation of the discrimination
  model
• Second stage include the predicted values of
  discrimination in the life satisfaction model
• Exclusion condition (Heckman, 1978) the use of
  religion affiliation
• Two religious denominations are used Islam and
  Judaism
• They are supposed to have an effect on perceived
  discrimination and not on life satisfaction

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Final findings The role of discrimination (two
stage estimation)
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Conclusion

• Differences in well-being between immigrants and
  natives endure
• over time
• and generations
• Contributions to the sociology of immigration and
  to the assimilation theory
• If measured by immigrants subjective well-being
  assimilation does not seem to be only a matter of
  time
• The attitude of the host society towards
  immigration is an important dimension of the
  assimilation process
• Subjective costs of discrimination