An Enquiry into the Effects of Migration on the Happiness of Migrants, Host Communities and Left Behind Families: A World Perspective

Page: 310-320
Ramya Ranjan Behera, Ranajit Bera, and Diganta Panda (Rekhi Centre of Excellence for the Science of Happiness, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal)

The study of subjective well-being has become a prime new topic in what we know about the causes and effects of migration. It has the potential to make important contributions to the field of migration studies. This paper tries to organise and assess the developing research on migration and happiness from a worldwide perspective. Both internal and international migration are examined in this paper, which also takes into account the perspectives of many stakeholders, like migrants themselves, as well as the host communities and extended families that they leave behind. The study found that migration decisions are greatly influenced by happiness, with somewhat dissatisfied people moving to happier places even after taking into consideration traditional migration predictors. When it comes to global migration, the majority of international migrants report happiness gains, whereas hosting communities have a mixed but minor effect, and family members who remain behind report an overall favourable impact on evaluative well-being but a negative impact on emotional well-being. The consequences, on the other hand, are highly context-dependent and there is a significant variance between individuals. Internal migrants are less affected by migration. Overall, the study concludes that migration improves the world by primarily benefiting migrants while having only minor negative consequences for host communities.