Differences in Subjective Well-being Between Older Migrants and Natives in Europe

Demographic aging and international migration have transformed the European population structure significantly. Many people with migration background have resided in their destination countries for a long time and have become an integral part of society. Given the everlasting flows of migration in- and outside of Europe, the social integration of immigrants has become an important part of research.

A growing body of literature uses either physical/mental health- or well-being-related measures as indicators for social integration [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. Studies on the subjective well-being (SWB) of migrants in later life are scarce and the influence of the institutional conditions of receiving societies on migrants’ SWB has hardly been accounted for. Most studies in this field focus on person-related characteristics. Apart from demographic features (such as gender and age) and migration-specific variables (like length of residence, language skills, and citizenship), they identify economic conditions, health status, social networks, and psychological factors as the main determinants of SWB [9, 10, 11]. However, it is important to capture potential influences at the macrolevel as well, especially because immigration policies are very heterogeneous across Europe and because large debates on immigration control and integration policies have been on the political agenda in numerous countries. Yet, there is limited knowledge on how these policies affect the SWB of migrants, particularly in later life.

Conducting research on 63 countries, Bonini finds that 19% of the variation of SWB can be explained by contextual and 81% by individual-specific factors [12]. Two recent studies detect a significant relationship of integration policies with migrants’ self-reported health [2] and SWB [1]. In the latter, Hadjar and Backes find evidence that the SWB gap between migrants and natives is larger in countries with a high GDP and smaller in countries with rather inclusive immigrant integration policies as measured by the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX).

Our study extends this new strand of research on well-being-related differences between migrants and natives that combines micro- and macrolevel factors using data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We contribute to existing research by analyzing the SWB of older migrants as a group of increasing importance in the European population structure [13]. As Amit and Litwin [9] point out, the integration of older immigrants has not yet received adequate attention within the literature.

By running our analysis in a cross-national setting we are able to account for institutional influences at the macrolevel, thereby focusing on family reunion policies, which turned out to be most influential for SWB among all MIPEX policy areas. Apart from family reunification, the MIPEX also contains the policy areas labor market mobility, education, political participation, access to nationality, long-term residence, and anti-discrimination. As the association with SWB was rather weak for these policy areas, we restrict our analysis to family reunion policies. Especially older migrants who are or will be in need for care might benefit from policies that facilitate family reunification.

“(…) [S]ince the societal SWB level is an indicator of social integration (…)” [1: 646] we assume that integration is achieved once the SWB-levels of migrants and natives are similar [10, 14]. Our main research questions are (a) whether there are any differences in SWB among migrants in relation to the respective native 50+ populations in different European countries, (b) which individual factors play a decisive role in reducing potential group disparities, and (c) if differences in the immigrant-native gap between countries are associated with different family reunion policies.

The Social Production Function Theory holds that people’s well-being is a function of individual and structural resources and constraints. At the individual level, the most important ones are health, education, income, and social ties [15]. Since the integration process takes place over time and with increasing exposure to the host culture, immigrants’ length of residence in the destination country and their social connectedness have to be accounted for [16, 17]. At the macrolevel, the social infrastructure, laws, regulations, and norms represent key resources and constraints [15]. Assimilation is a process in which laws and institutions play an important role in affecting immigrants’ integration process. According to Sen’s “Capabilities” approach, political and institutional settings limit and structure the opportunities of individuals [18]. The Host Society Environment approach by Maxwell highlights that the geographic variation of integration outcomes depends on the legal situation of immigrants in the place of destination [19]. Access to citizenship and political participation play a major role here. Apart from that, studies have shown that cultural and institutional characteristics inherent to the place of origin (e.g., language proximity to destination country, labor market regulations, education system, transferability of skills and certificates) are crucial for the integration process [10, 20].

Immigrant legislation in Europe is as diverse as its member states. Different policy contexts affect immigrants’ quality of life in various ways and thus the extent to which they feel integrated into the host society [1]. Migrants’ SWB is likely to be afflicted in countries where institutional barriers to achieve social integration are considerably high. Particularly bringing the family together is a major factor promoting the subjective well-being and integration of migrants in their receiving societies [21]. A person’s feeling of comfort and security increases once the family members reside in one place. This is especially the case for older people who are in need of care and support. Among the above-mentioned policy areas, the MIPEX measures the conditions for family reunification across 38 countries including all EU countries. MIPEX is a collaborative study of 25 organizations that was started in 2004 and assigns scores from 0 to 100 for each policy area [22]. High-scoring policy regimes promote the family’s integration in terms of extensive eligibility for family members, manageable requirements for their kin, fairly secure residence status, and sufficient associated rights (e.g., equal access to schools, jobs, housing and social programs). Bureaucratic procedures are quick and free of charge. Low-scoring policy regimes are fairly selective and bureaucratic. They favor migrants with high incomes and stable jobs and implement relatively restrictive procedures for family members in terms of eligibility, conditions, security of status, or associated rights.

In our sample of 11 countries, the country with the highest MIPEX score regarding family reunion policies is Spain with an average value of 87 for the years 2007–2013. Families are allowed to reunite once their sponsor can provide basic housing and legal income based on the general Spanish standards for families. Procedures are fast and more rights-based and secure than in any other country. Eligibility is granted to partners and was expanded to adult children in 2009. While Sweden (79), Belgium (75), and Italy (74) also have comparably high scores, Luxembourg (62), the Netherlands (59), Germany (58), and France (51) range in the middle of the MIPEX classification. Austria (49) and Switzerland (47) belong to the countries with the lowest scores. Only Denmark (36) falls short of them. There immigrants have to wait longer to reunite than in most other developed destination countries. The requirements are highly restrictive including a points-based system, an immigration test, and high fees. Additionally, adult children and parents can only reunite under exceptional circumstances [23, 24, 25].

Taking this into consideration, we anticipate the immigrant-native gap in SWB to be more pronounced in countries with restrictive family reunion policies (i.e., low MIPEX family reunion scores) and smaller in countries with more open policies (i.e., high MIPEX family reunion scores).

This study uses waves 1, 2, 4, and 5 of SHARE [26]. SHARE was started in 2004 and is a multidisciplinary panel study on health, socioeconomic status, and social and family networks of respondents from 20 European countries plus Israel aged 50 or over [27]. The survey is administered biennially via computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI). The overall sample comprises more than 120,000 individuals. In order to maintain the maximum number of observations per country, we restrict the sample to all regular SHARE waves and exclude wave 3, which is about respondents’ life histories. We include all migrants (i.e., respondents born in a country other than the country of interview) and natives (i.e., respondents born in the country of interview and having its citizenship) aged 50–85. The observation numbers drop drastically after age 85. Furthermore, we keep all SHARE countries containing at least 100 individual migrants: Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Switzerland (CH), Germany (DE), Denmark (DK), Spain (ES), France (FR), Italy (IT), Luxembourg (LU), Netherlands (NL), and Sweden (SE). Israel, Greece, Portugal, and the Eastern European states Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia are excluded due to a limited number of migrants and partially very specific migration histories (i.e., Israel, Czech Republic, and Estonia).

Using multivariate random effects (RE) regression models with individual-level clustered robust standard errors we examine differences in SWB between migrants and natives. The dependent variable CASP is a measure for the self-assessed quality of life and well-being of respondents. Quality of life can be operationalized in different ways depending on the field of research (e.g., financial assets in economics or health in medicine). Within the social sciences, good SWB is characterized by a positive state of mind and high levels of life satisfaction [28]. A common instrument to measure SWB is the Satisfaction with Life Scale. However, considering the age structure of SHARE respondents, we opt for CASP, a measure that is designed to quantify the perceived quality of life and subjective well-being of older respondents, initially developed in a population aged 65–75 years [29, 30]. CASP does not only cover aspects of life satisfaction and health, but also social circumstances and functional limitations. It includes questions concerning the domains control, autonomy, self-realization, and pleasure (CASP). SHARE contains an abridged version of CASP that encompasses 12 out of originally 19 items by reducing each of the domains to the three strongest items. In order to do so the statistical analysis used to produce the original 19 item scale was replicated [31]. The score is the sum of all 12 items, which yields a minimum value of 12 and a maximum value of 48. The overall mean in our sample is 38.3 (SD 6.1).

The control variables in this analysis include the following measures: age, sex, marital status, household size (i.e., the number of people per household), number of children, level of education measured by the 1997 version of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), employment status (i.e., retired, employed or self-employed, unemployed, sick, homemaker, other), health (number of chronic diseases), and financial difficulties (original question wording: Thinking of your household’s total monthly income, would you say that your household is able to make ends meet… (a) with great difficulty, (b) with some difficulty, (c) fairly easily or (d) easily). We generated a binary variable that equals 1 if the household has great or some difficulty and 0 if the household is able to make ends meet fairly easily or easily.

Our independent variables are the migration-related measures citizenship status, age at migration below/above 18, and length of residence. Apart from these individual factors, we use the average family reunion MIPEX score per country of the period 2007–2013 as macrolevel indicator.