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The Well-Being of Moroccan Immigrants in Spain: A Composite Indicator

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Abstract

This article studies the dimensions that influence the well-being of Moroccan immigrants in Spain. In a first step, we build a composite indicator of immigrant well-being following the theoretical model by Bosswick and Heckmann (Integration and access to social rights of migrants: the contribution of local and regional authorities. Conceptual Framework Draft, Bamberg, 2006. https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ef_publication/field_ef_document/ef0622en.pdf) and adapted according to the methodological recommendations of the International Organization for Migration (IOM in Migration in the 2030 agenda, 2013. http://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/migration_in_the_2030_agenda.pdf). The dimensions of the index are cultural well-being, structural well-being, community well-being and subjective well-being. In a second step, we consider this index as a dependent variable of immigrant-related social and economic characteristics. Results show that immigrants’ well-being is related to the way they reached the country, the reasons they came, whether they arrived before or after the crisis, and their region of residence in Spain. The results underline the importance of local policies fostering Moroccan integration to increase immigrants’ well-being.

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Notes

  1. The dataset is available under request by contacting the third author of this study.

  2. We included age squared in the regression to account for nonlinearities, but this variable was found to be non-significant, and we decided not to include it in the final results.

  3. This tendency with income is general in all models estimated, as the highest income dummies present the greatest coefficients. However, there are several exceptions that seem to contradict this general result. It may be there is some effect of immigrant related variables that conditions the marginal effect of the income variable.

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Acknowledgements

This research has been partially supported by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, the State Research Agency (SRA) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (project references ECO2017-86822-R and CSO2013-140646-P).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain

    Rosa M. Soriano-Miras & Antonio Trinidad-Requena

  2. Institute of Peace and Conflict and Department of Applied Economics, Universidad de Granada, Edf. Documentación, C/ Rector López Argüeta, S/N, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Jorge Guardiola

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  1. Rosa M. Soriano-Miras
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Soriano-Miras, R.M., Trinidad-Requena, A. & Guardiola, J. The Well-Being of Moroccan Immigrants in Spain: A Composite Indicator. Soc Indic Res 148, 635–653 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-019-02215-8

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