Life satisfaction and desire to emigrate: What does the cross‐national analysis show?
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| Author | Tatiana Karabchuk,Marina‐Selini Katsaiti,Karin A. C. Johnson |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13064 |
1Department of Government and Society,
College of Humanities and Social Sciences,
UAE University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
2Laboratory for Comparative Social Research,
National Research University Higher School of
Economics, Moscow, Russia
3Department of Regional and Economic
Development, Agricultural University of
Athens, Amfissa, Greece
4United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain,
United Arab Emirates
5Hellenic Open University, Athens, Greece
6Affiliated Faculty, Department of Sociology,
College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University,
College Station, Texas, USA
7U.S. Census Bureau Administrator of the
Texas Federal Statistical Research Data Center,
College Station, Texas, USA
Correspondence
Tatiana Karabchuk, Department of
Government and Society, College of
Humanities and Social Sciences, UAE
University, P.O. 15551, Al Ain, United Arab
Emirates.
Email: tkarabchuk@uaue.ac.ae
Funding information
UAE University Emirates Center for happiness
Research
Abstract
Few articles explain how life satisfaction and happiness
influence intention to migrate to another country. This
study fills the gap by investigating the desire to emigrate
in relation to individual life satisfaction while testing for
moderation effects of national life satisfaction scores, the
Human Development Index and Gender Inequality Index at
country level. The empirical analysis is based on the unique
Gallup World Poll data for 127 countries in 2017. In line with
previous research, the findings confirm a negative associ-
ation between life satisfaction (both individual and coun-
try level) and the desire to emigrate. Furthermore, results
point to mean country life satisfaction, human develop-
ment and gender inequality levels acting as moderators of
individual-level life satisfaction on the desire to emigrate.
Higher aggregate life satisfaction levels act as counter-forces
to individual life satisfaction, performing as enablers of stay
versus move. In countries with lower human development
and higher gender inequality, individual life satisfaction
will act as an enabler to move. A comprehensive discussion
includes findings for gender and age groups and those born
or not born in the country.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Life satisfaction and desire to emigrate: What
does the cross-national analysis show?
Tatiana Karabchuk1,2 | Marina-Selini Katsaiti3,4,5 |
Karin A. C. Johnson6,7
DOI: 10.1111/imig.13064
Received: 29 June 2022 Accepted: 1 September 2022
INTRODUCTION
Research aiming to explain the root causes of migration has a long, cross-disciplinary record. A recent strand of
literature points to the contribution of life satisfaction 1 on migration decisions. For individuals, life satisfaction
349
© 2022 International Organization for Migration.
International Migration. 2023;61:349–372. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
(assessed by the level of life evaluation, quality of life, happiness or perceived opportunities) was found to super-
sede economic factors in peoples' decisions to emigrate (Bartolini et al., 2017; Manchin & Orazbayev, 2018;
Mara & Landesmann, 2013; Shamsuddin & Katsaiti, 2019). In line with these findings, previous studies confirmed
a negative relationship between national life satisfaction and the desire to migrate (Chindarkar, 2014; Graham &
Markowitz, 2011; Lovo, 2014; Otrachshenko & Popova, 2014). Yet few articles explain how individual life satisfaction
and the national level of happiness interact to influence a person's desire to emigrate to another country.
Adopting an aspirations and capabilities theoretical framework (Carling, 2002), this article fills the gap by using
individual level data from the Gallup World Poll (GWP) for 2017, with substantial geographical and population cover-
age, to provide a rigorous analysis of the moderation effect of country mean life satisfaction, Human Development
Index (HDI) and Gender Inequality Index (GII) 2 on individual life satisfaction and the desire to move to another coun-
try. According to updated theory of Cultural Evolutions (Inglehart, 2018), HDI and GII reflect not only socio-economic
development of a country, but are also strongly linked with the current value system and societal norms, which define
the sustainable development of society. The level of human capital development as well as gender equality attitudes
account for the opportunities for a better life of the people in a country, impacting national life satisfaction scores.
This research adds value to the literature by substantiating these links between emigration and life satisfaction under
the human development conditions in a country.
When one examines the world's life satisfaction, people are happy on average. In certain regions, mean attitudes
are higher – Latin America–Caribbean, North America, Western Europe and Australia–New Zealand – while elsewhere
– South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa – attitudes are lower than the global average (Ortiz-Ospina & Roser, 2017). In
addition to happiness scores, GWP survey results (2007–2013) inform us that three geographic regions have coun-
tries with relatively high proportions of respondents who replied positively to the emigration desire question: the
Latin America–Caribbean area, post-soviet Commonwealth of Independent States and sub-Saharan African countries
(OECD, 2015, p. 42). Figure 1 shows the results held in 2017 as well.
KARABCHUK etAl.
350
FIGURE 1 Percentage of the population who would like to move permanently to another country, Gallup
World Poll (2017).
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