Examining the Relationship Between Acculturation and Socioeconomic Status and Their Role for the First Generation Polish Immigrants’ Well-Being

Studies investigating the relationship between acculturation, socioeconomic status (SES), and well-being in migrant populations have brought discrepant results. This paper offers a possible explanation of such discrepancies by focusing on the relationship between different indicators of acculturation and SES, in addition to their effects on well-being. Language proficiency, length of stay, social contacts, and sense of belonging were the acculturation indicators included in the analysis. SES was measured through subjective financial situation. A proposed path model specified a pattern of direct and indirect relationships between variables. The data was collected from first generation Polish immigrants living in the city of Vienna (N = 307). Both fitted models, of life satisfaction and happiness, achieved a good fit to the data (χ2 (7) = 6.02, p = .537, SRMR = .022; χ2 (7) = 7.45, p = .384, SRMR = .026, respectively). The results demonstrated that SES, measured as subjective economic situation, is at least partially predicted by the two most popular indicators of acculturation: language proficiency and length of stay. Furthermore, both belonging and subjective financial situation were directly and positively associated with immigrants’ well-being. Acculturation, therefore, can be associated with immigrant’s well-being directly as well as indirectly through SES. These findings suggest that distinguishing between different indicators of acculturation is crucial for understanding the complex relationship between acculturation and SES, and that it can be beneficial for future studies to include their mutual relationships in the tested models rather than juxtaposing SES and acculturation while trying to predict well-being.


Introduction
Acculturation refers to the process of change that takes place as a result of contact between two or more cultural groups and their individual members (Berry, 2005, p. 698). At the individual level, it involves changes experienced by a given person as a result of this contact, also called psychological acculturation (Graves, 1967). The term acculturation, in relation to immigrants, is currently used predominantly in psychological studies, with sociologists and other social scientists preferring the term integration. The concept of and subsequent research on acculturation and integration have been criticized on numerous grounds, such as for masking power asymmetries and strengthening the image of the ill-fitting immigrant (Meissner & Heil, 2021). Although the present study employs the term acculturation as one of its main concepts, it still recognizes its disputed nature and shortcomings.
Migrants' health in general, and mental health in particular (including wellbeing considered as a form of mental health) have often been studied in relation to acculturation (Broesch & Hadley, 2012). However, several reviews have concluded that the findings of such studies brought, in general, inconclusive and contradicting results (e.g., Koneru et al., 2007;Lopez-Class et al., 2011;Sam et al., 2016).
Failure to include or control for relevant variables which can influence the relationship between mental health and acculturation such as socio-economic status (SES) has been named as one potential source of these inconsistent findings (Rudmin, 2009;Shen & Takeuchi, 2001). Research has shown that low SES is a crucial predictor of low health among minorities, often stronger than acculturation variables (Rudmin, 2009). However, when SES is not measured, its effect can be confounded with the effects of acculturation on variables of interest (Moyerman & Forman, 1992).
In the last decade, more studies have examined multivariate models including both SES as well as acculturation measures as predictors of immigrants' well-being. However, the results are still equivocal. Whereas some studies demonstrated that both SES and acculturation variables are significantly associated with immigrants' well-being (Angelini et al., 2015;Wiking et al., 2004), in others, only acculturation (Bak-Klimek et al., 2018) or only SES variables (Bak-Klimek et al., 2015;Lönnqvist et al., 2015) had a significant effect on well-being.
The variations in how acculturation is measured, as well as inadequate measurement, have been named as other potential reasons for the discrepancies in research findings on acculturation consequences. The majority of the numerous acculturation scales include multiple items and cover multiple domains of acculturation. Nevertheless, a substantial variation exists regarding the areas covered by the different scales, with some of them having no content overlap at all, which raises questions regarding the content validity (Schumann et al., 2020;Zane & Mak, 2003). In a systematic review of the measurement of acculturation in epidemiological research, Schumann et al. (2020) recommended the use of single migration-specific items as opposed to multi-item acculturation scales for studying relations between acculturation and health. They also questioned the credibility of using a single acculturation score for research analysis, calculated as a function of the answers to scale items as overly reductionistic.
In the present paper, I would like to bring attention to one further possible explanation for the discrepant results. Due to acculturation being a broad concept, with multiple possible indicators, it is possible that a pattern of relationships between some indicators of acculturation and indicators of SES exist in addition to their associations with well-being. In that case, not including such relationships in tested models could confound the results of analysis. Therefore, I propose that, in addition to including both constructs in empirical studies, their mutual relationship should also be considered.
The aforementioned studies with multivariate models mostly used regression models for their analysis, where a measure of well-being was regressed on indicators of acculturation and SES. This method prevents the specification of patterns of more complex relationships between predictors and between predictors and criterium. However, some studies utilizing structural equation modeling and including both constructs similarly did not take such patterns into consideration (e.g., Raijman & Geffen, 2018;Shen & Takeuchi, 2001). A few studies exist that included direct and indirect relationships between acculturation and SES, and between different indicators of acculturation in its models (e.g., Goodwin et al., 2012;Jasinskaja-Lahti & Liebkind, 2007).
The objective of the present paper is to further examine the association between acculturation, SES, and immigrant well-being by specifying and testing a pattern of direct and indirect relationships between indicators of acculturation, SES, and wellbeing. Furthermore, following the recommendations of Schumann et al. (2020), the paper focuses on several single indicators of acculturation, in order to clearly distinguish the unique effects of different aspects of acculturation on well-being, as well as their mutual relationships, and its associations with SES. Language proficiency, length of stay, social contacts, and sense of belonging are the acculturation variables included in the analysis. The first three variables are considered to refer to the structural and social aspects of immigrants' life, and the latter variable to feelings, as will be discussed further in the text. A path model is proposed. Polish migrants living in Vienna are used as a case study. It is hypothesized that the structural and social acculturation indicators can be simultaneously associated with both SES indicators and sense of belonging. Furthermore, belonging and SES can be simultaneously but independently associated with immigrant's well-being.

Sense of Belonging and the Well-Being of Immigrants
Many acculturation studies have focused on ethnic identity of immigrants as an aspect of acculturation, which can be defined as a sense of belonging to a particular ethnic group (Liebkind et al., 2016). However, some recent studies have turned their attention to the concept of sense of belonging as such, instead of the notion of identity (e.g., Amit, 2012;Hou et al., 2018;Wu et al., 2012). Feelings of belonging to the home country and the country of immigration have also been identified as one of the proxies used in empirical research on health and acculturation (Schumann et al., 2020). In this paper, sense of belonging constitutes the central, subjective measure of acculturation.
Belonging can be defined as a "personal, intimate feeling of being "at home" in a place" (Antonsich, 2010, p. 645). In this context, "home" stands for a "symbolic place of familiarity, comfort, security, and emotional attachment" (Antonsich, 2010: 646). Belonging has also been defined as a sense of ease with oneself and one's surroundings (May, 2011) and as a dynamic emotional attachment possible at a range of different spatial scales and forms (based, for example, on ethnicity, religious affiliation, gender, and sexual orientation) (Wood & Waite, 2011). People's need to belong is so strong that it is considered to be a fundamental human motivation (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). A lack of belongingness is associated with a negative effect, and considered a severe deprivation which might cause a variety of ill effects (Baumeister & Leary, 1995, p. 497). In the case of immigrants, upon moving to a new place, belonging becomes uncertain (Lewin, 1997). Therefore, it seems likely that whether immigrants will be able to gain sense of belonging or not, and to what degree in the context of a new settlement, would have consequences for their subjective well-being.
Empirical studies focusing on immigrants found evidence of the relationship between sense of belonging and well-being (Amit & Bar-Lev, 2015;Kitchen et al., 2015;Raijman & Geffen, 2018). However, they differed regarding the postulated causality. In their study, Amit and Bar-Lev (2015) showed a strong positive association between these two constructs when testing a model where life satisfaction was a predictor of sense of belonging to the country of immigration. Later, Raijman et al. (2018), aiming to unpack the relationship between belonging and life satisfaction, provided evidence that sense of belonging is, in fact, a predictor of life satisfaction, and not the opposite. The results indicate the crucial role of sense of belonging to the host society for immigrants' life satisfaction.
Although acculturation in general and also belonging more specifically have been most often analyzed at a countrywide scale, from a theoretical as well as empirical perspective, it is very well possible to utilize a city or neighborhood scale for the analysis (comp. Antonsich, 2010;Askins, 2015;Hernández et al., 2007). The present study focuses on a city scale and analyzes immigrants' sense of belonging to Vienna. This approach allows a departure from methodological nationalism, for which migration studies have been strongly criticized (Wimmer & Glick Schiller, 2002). A city scale seems adequate for measuring place-belongingness, for it avoids the abstractness and often assumed synonymity of sense of belonging with national identity, often associated with the country scale. Scholars argued that migrants' adaptation trajectories are both shaped by, and contribute, to the way of life in, and development of, differently positioned cities (Schiller & Çağlar, 2009). Hernández et al. (2007) demonstrated that a city is a relevant scale of analysis of belonging for immigrants and that it can be charged with a symbolic meaning, making it possible for immigrants to form a strong attachment to it.
In light of these findings, the following hypothesis was tested: sense of belonging to Vienna will be positively associated with immigrants' well-being (H1).

3
Examining the Relationship Between Acculturation and…

Social Contacts, Language Proficiency, and Years Since Migration and Their Relation to the Sense of Belonging
Based on literature review, Antonsich (2010) distinguished factors that can contribute to generating feelings of belonging to a place. Among them are personal and social ties, language, and length of residence in a given place. Empirical research specifically focused on immigrants further corroborates these findings. Several qualitative, as well as quantitative studies, demonstrated the importance of social contacts with the native population for sense of belonging to the country of settlement and to mainstream society (Chow, 2007;George & Selimos, 2019;Valenta, 2009).
For example, in a study on the social integration of first-generation immigrants in Norway, Valenta (2009) found that having Norwegian friends and acquaintances was central in achieving a sense of recognition and belonging to mainstream society. Relations with native Norwegians was interpreted by immigrants as concrete evidence of belonging and acceptance (p.186) even in cases involving rather weak ties and not a deep friendship. In contrast, this symbolic meaning of acceptance and belonging was not attributed to the relationships with compatriots and immigrants from other ethnic groups. Another qualitative study (Askins, 2015) demonstrated how new immigrants fulfill the desire to belong to their new place of settlement by engaging in the local community and forming friendships with locals, stressing the importance of social ties on a local level for a feeling of belonging.
In a quantitative study of first-generation Hong Kong immigrants in Canada, Chow (2007) found that a positive experience in making friends with Canadians was one of the strongest predictors of sense of belonging to Canada, as well as life satisfaction of immigrants.
Language proficiency and/or language use has been the most often included indicator of acculturation in acculturation scales (Rudmin, 2009) and one of the most popular proxies of acculturation used as a single indicator (Schumann et al., 2020). Furthermore, it has been shown that immigrants themselves also perceive the ability to speak the language of the immigration country as a very important factor in settling in (Grzymala-Kazlowska, 2018;Kutor et al., 2021). Grzymala-Kazlowska (2018) interviewed Polish immigrants living in the UK and concluded that having learnt English was very important in anchoring, a concept developed by her and akin to belonging, and finding their place in Britain. Furthermore, both prior mentioned studies (Amit & Bar-Lev, 2015;Raijman & Geffen, 2018) analyzing several predictors of belonging found a positive relationship between proficiency in the immigration country language and sense of belonging to the immigration country. Furthermore, language proficiency was also positively related to life satisfaction in these studies.
Length of stay in the host country has been another often utilized proxy of acculturation (Schumann et al., 2020). It is assumed that the more time immigrants spend in the new place, the more they become familiar with and adjust to it, and therefore, the more they change. Studies have also shown that immigrants' sense of belonging to the country of settlement and to the local community in the country of settlement can increase with time lived there (Hou et al., 2018;Kitchen et al., 2015). However, the effect sizes are rather small, especially when controlling for other acculturation indicators, and sometimes, do not reach statistical significance (e.g., Amit & Bar-Lev, 2015).
Based on these findings, it is expected that sense of belonging will be stronger for immigrants who have more social contacts with natives (H2). Furthermore, it is expected that sense of belonging will increase with the level of German language proficiency (H3) and length of stay (years since migration) in Vienna (H4).

Socioeconomic Status and the Well-Being of Immigrants
"SES represents individuals' possession of normatively valued social and economic resources" (Antonoplis, 2022, p. 5) and can be further conceptualized as "set of structural features that guide the decisions and behaviors people take" (p. 10), with education and income being the features most commonly studied in empirical research (Antonoplis, 2022). Multiple studies have demonstrated the importance of SES for the health and well-being of immigrants. For example, a study focusing on Turkish immigrant mothers in Germany (Fassbender & Leyendecker, 2018) found that mothers' higher SES, measured by the household income and education level, was associated with higher life satisfaction, fewer daily hassles and less depression. This relationship was further confirmed as stable in a 1-year follow-up study. Goodwin et al. (2012) conducted a longitudinal study on factors which influence perceived changes in health among Polish immigrants in the UK. They tested a pathway model integrating socio-demographic and acculturation variables in the examination of health outcomes. Their findings highlight the importance of SES obtained in the receiving country, since it was the only variable directly predicting perceived mental health. Raijman and Geffen (2018) showed that immigrants' SES, measured by household income per capita, was positively correlated with life satisfaction, but not with sense of belonging to the immigration country, when both were assessed simultaneously. Therefore, although some studies found no relation between SES and well-being, as previously mentioned (e.g., Bak-Klimek et al., 2018), the majority of studies on non-migrant (see Clark et al., 2008;Dolan et al., 2008;Simandan, 2018 for review) as well as migrant population (see Bak-Klimek et al., 2015 for review) provide evidence in favor of hypothesizing a positive relationship between these two constructs. Therefore, it is expected that SES will be positively associated with immigrants' well-being (H5).

Social Contacts, Language Proficiency, and Years Since Migration and Their Relation to SES
Empirical literature provides evidence that all three acculturation indicators, social contacts, language proficiency, and years since migration described earlier as predictors of sense of belonging, are also associated with SES. In the case of social contacts, previous studies have indicated that contact with natives can be more beneficial for immigrants' SES than co-ethnic contacts, by providing practical knowledge relevant to the place of immigration's labor market, as well as better access to it and culturally competent assistance in the process of searching for a job. Kanas et al. (2012) used longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel to test the causal effect of social contacts on immigrants' occupational status and income. The results confirmed that having more contact with Germans increased the occupational status and income of immigrants. This effect was valid even after controlling for numerous other variables. Likewise, research has shown that better proficiency in the country of immigration's language significantly improves economic opportunities and income of immigrants (Chiswick & Miller, 2002;Shields & Price, 2002) and that length of stay is positively associated with immigrants' SES (Jasinskaja-Lahti & Liebkind, 2007). Based on these findings, it is expected that immigrants' SES will be positively associated with having social contact with natives (H6), with German language proficiency (H7) and with length of stay (years since migration) in Vienna (H8).

Discrimination
Numerous studies have shown that perceived discrimination can have a profound impact on immigrants' well-being, often stronger than acculturation . Therefore, in the proposed model, perceived discrimination is included as a control variable.

The Context of the Study
Within migration studies, many of the analyses concerning acculturation, belonging, and settlement tend to focus on the experiences of refugees and third country nationals, as well as "guest workers." In contrast, less is known about the acculturation and its consequences for people migrating within the EU (Collett, 2013;Ryan, 2018). The proposed model was tested among first generation Polish immigrants (i.e., born in Poland) living in the city of Vienna. Vienna, as the capital and largest city of Austria, has by far the highest rate of foreign born population in the country. At the beginning of 2020, foreign born individuals accounted for 36.7% of the city's population (Österreichischer Integrationsfonds, 2020). People born in Poland constitute the fourth largest immigrant group in the city with 49,152 persons, and apart from German immigrants, who have the benefit of the same language, they form the largest immigrant group from within the European Union. As EU citizens, they can freely reside and work in Austria and are entitled to social security benefits. However, it is important to note that many Poles came to Austria before Poland joined the EU, during the 1980s as refugees fleeing from the communist regime (estimated 46,000) (Potkansky, 2011). In many European immigration countries, Poles form the largest workers' group among immigrants originating from the new EU member states (Frelak, 2009). Polish immigrants appear to be fairly well integrated in Austrian society. A large study analyzing the integration of immigrants from former Yugoslavia, Turkey, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, and Poland found that Polish migrants rate their subjective feeling of integration the highest among all the prior mentioned groups (Ulram, 2009). They are also some of the best educated immigrants among the large immigrant groups in Austria (OECD, 2008). Regarding the economic integration of Polish immigrants, the 2019 unemployment rate for Polish citizens in Vienna amounted to 13.4%, which is lower than the average for foreigners in general (16.8%) but still higher than that of Austrian citizens (11.7%) and German citizens (6.7%) (Österreichischer Integrationsfonds, 2020).

Sample and Procedure
This cross-sectional study targeted first generation Polish immigrants (i.e., born in Poland) living permanently in the city of Vienna (as opposed to circular or seasonal immigrants). As Polish immigrants can be considered a "hidden" or "hard-to-reach" population (Faugier & Sargeant, 1997), it was not possible to apply a random sampling, because no official register, nor any other broad database for generating random samples was available. Therefore, a convenience sample was recruited through diverse methods. These included recruiting through online forums and Facebook groups, Polish formal and informal associations in Vienna, institutions such as the Polish Culture Institute in Vienna, during events for Polish immigrants, as well as through informal contacts and snow-ball sampling. A total of 307 persons completed a questionnaire for this study and were subsequently included in the analysis. Approximately 68% of the participants identified as women and 32% as man. The mean sample age was 41.39 (SD = 13.89). Information about participants' education level and length of stay in Austria are provided in Table 1. The questionnaire was available in the Polish language, in an online, as well as paper and pencil version. The majority of participants completed the questionnaire online (72%). The participants needed approximately 40 min to complete it.

Measures
Sense of belonging to Vienna was measured by the question: Do you feel rather alien or rather home in Vienna? The answer was rated on a 7-point scale from I feel very alien to I feel really at home. Social contacts were measured regarding three groups: native Austrians, compatriots, and immigrants from other ethnic groups and two dimensions: social contacts in leisure time and work related social contacts. In summary, six questions were asked regarding how many people from each of the three groups the respondents spend their leisure and work-related time with. Regarding their social contacts in leisure time, participants were asked: How many people you spend your leisure time with originally come from … or have … background? Furthermore, the three groups were listed next to a rating scale. An analog question was posed regarding work related time. The answers were given on a 7-point scale ranging from almost no one to really a lot. Again, as indicated in the hypotheses, based on findings from previous studies, only social contacts with natives in leisure time were included in the model. Length of stay in Austria and length of stay in Vienna were measured in years. Due to the choice of city scale for this study, length of stay in Vienna was included in the estimated model and not the length of stay in Austria. However, statistical characteristics of these two variables are almost identical (Table 1). Only 7% of the sample have not lived in the city of Vienna from the beginning of their stay in Austria. For this group, the average time between migrating to Austria and moving to Vienna amounts to 3 years (SD = 2.3). German language proficiency was measured by the question: How well do you speak German? The answer was rated on a 7-point scale from not at all to fluent.
SES was assessed by measuring the education level and financial situation of participants. Education was measured in six categories, ranging from primary school through to Master or higher degree. Previous studies indicated that subjective measures of the financial situation have stronger predictive power for well-being than actual income (see Dolan et al., 2008 for a review). Therefore, income was measured by a subjective assessment of one's current economic situation. The answer was given on a 7-point scale from very bad to very good. For the estimated model, only subjective economic situation and not education was included as a measure of SES. Subjective economic situation was chosen because of a stronger empirical base for predicting its association with well-being than in the case of education (Bak-Klimek et al., 2015), as well as due to a low variation in the level of participants' education.
As a measure of well-being, two previously established scales concerning life satisfaction and happiness were used. Satisfaction with life was assessed using a measure developed by Diener et al. (1985) consisting of five items. It measures the judgmental component of subjective well-being and assesses satisfaction with the respondent's life as a whole. One example item is "In most ways my life is close to my ideal". A 7-point answer scale was applied, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Cronbach's alpha, as well as McDonald's Omega, for this measure in the present study was 0.87. Happiness was assessed using the Subjective Happiness Scale developed by Lyubomirsky and Lepper (1999) which measures the emotional component of subjective well-being. It consists of four items which are answered on a 7-point scale. The poles of the rating scale are labeled differently for each item as to correspond to its content. An example item is 'In general, I consider myself:' with the rating scale ranging from not a very happy person to a happy person. Cronbach's alpha for this measure in the present study was 0.78, and McDonald's Omega was 0.57. Both measures were translated to Polish language by professional translators and Polish native speakers using the backtranslation method.
Perceived discrimination was measured by asking how often a person has experienced discrimination as a foreigner since living in Vienna. The 5-point answer scale ranged from never to very often.

Results
The descriptive statistics of the study variables are shown in Table 1. The Pearson's correlations among variables used in the models are presented in Table 2.
Path analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses that the structural and social acculturation indicators (language proficiency, social contacts with natives, and length of stay) will simultaneously predict immigrants' SES as well as their sense of belonging to Vienna. Furthermore, SES and sense of belonging to Vienna will directly predict the immigrants' level of well-being. These associations were tested in a single path model. The model was estimated with AMOS 28, the maximum likelihood estimator. All variables were screened for normality prior to analysis (Table 1). In order to test the robustness of the proposed model, two models were fitted, one in which well-being was measured as life satisfaction and a second in which well-being was measured as happiness. The multivariate kurtosis for the present sample for variables included in the first model equals 4.220 and in the second model equals 2.609 and does not exceed the suggested cut off value of 10.0 (Kline, 2016). The first fitted model is depicted in Fig. 1. The global fit statistics for the present model show that the path model ( Fig. 1) fits the data very well, χ 2 (df = 7; N = 307) = 6.02; p = 0.537, CFI = 1.00, RMSEA = 0.000, 90% CI [0.000, 0.064], SRMR = 0.022. As predicted (H1), the stronger the sense of belonging to Vienna, the higher the life satisfaction of immigrants. Furthermore, consistent with previous research findings and posed hypotheses (H2, H3, and H4), social contacts with natives, language proficiency, as well as length of stay predicted sense of belonging to Vienna. Social contacts with natives seemed to be the strongest predictor, followed by the knowledge of German language and the length of stay.
Immigrants' SES, measured by subjective economic situation, significantly predicted the level of life satisfaction as assumed (H5). It has been hypothesized that the same set of acculturation indicators which predicts immigrants' sense of belonging will also predict their SES. This appears to be true for language proficiency (H7) and length of stay (H8), but not for social contacts with natives (H6). The last association was very weak and did not reach statistical significance. The controlled variable included in the model, perceived discrimination, and seemed to be significantly associated with one endogenous variable, sense of belonging to Vienna. A second fitted model, where the endogenous variable life satisfaction was substituted by the measure of happiness, is depicted in the Fig. 2. This path model fits the data almost equally well, χ 2 (df = 7; N = 307) = 7.45, p = 0.384, CFI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.015, 90% CI [0.000, 0.073], SRMR = 0.026. Both, sense of belonging and SES, significantly predicted the level of happiness. However, the associations were weaker than in the case of life satisfaction. Table 3 presents the unstandardized estimates for all estimated parameters.
Due to the imbalance of the obtained sample in terms of participants' gender, both models were additionally tested while controlling for gender. Inclusion of the gender variable did not alter the pattern nor the strength of relationships between other variables (Online Resource 1).

Discussion
The objective of this study was to investigate the association between acculturation, SES, and immigrant well-being, including a pattern of direct and indirect relationships between variables.
Acculturation, understood as changes at the individual level following contact with a new culture , was operationalized through several indicators. A model was proposed in which social contact with natives, proficiency in the language of the immigration country, and length of stay would predict immigrants' sense of belonging, as well as their SES, which in turn would predict immigrants' well-being. SES was assessed through subjective financial situation. This feature of SES was selected as the most relevant for the proposed model (comp. Antonoplis, 2022). Perceived discrimination was included as a control variable in the model. Results provide support for all but one of the hypothesized associations between these variables and in the predicted direction.
It was important to examine the associations between several single indicators of acculturation, SES, and well-being in order to better understand the complex nature of this relationship. It was found that two out of three acculturation indicators, referring to structural and social aspects, namely, proficiency in the language of the immigration country and length of stay, were positively associated with both SES and sense of belonging. Contrastingly, social contact with natives was positively associated only with sense of belonging. No association was found between this variable and the SES. These results indicate that sense of belonging to a new place of settlement, in this case, to the city where immigrants live, which can be considered a subjective indicator of acculturation, is at least partially derived from changes in other acculturative domains referring to structural and social aspects of immigrants' adaptation. The strongest predictor of belonging appears to derive from the social affiliation domain. This result provides further evidence for the importance of contact with the native population for immigrants' feelings of being at home within their new place of residence. It is well may be that, as previously suggested (Valenta, 2009), having native friends or acquaintances gives the assurance of acceptance by the people who originally belong to the country in question. However, such contact does not appear to be associated with the economic situation of immigrants. It may be the case that, due to the study participants being generally well educated, they did not require as much assistance on the labor market as may be the case for less educated immigrants (comp. Drever & Hoffmeister, 2008). The second most important predictor of belonging was fluency in the German language. It also predicted, with similar strength, the SES of immigrants. This suggests that the ability to communicate freely in the language of the immigration country can help foster a feeling of belonging, as well as facilitate the economic success of immigrants. Furthermore, the mere length of residence in a place strengthens the sense of belonging to it, as already suggested in the literature. Length of stay in the new place of settlement is also similarly strongly associated with immigrants' SES. It seems possible that, as immigrants gain more experience in the immigration country's labor market, they can move up the ladder and improve their financial situation. The results of the study also support H1 and H5. Significant associations were found between a stronger sense of belonging and better well-being of immigrants, as well as between higher SES and better well-being. Both belonging and SES are significantly predicting the level of immigrants' well-being. However, the strength of these associations is more than twice as high for SES than belonging in cases where well-being is operationalized as life satisfaction, as well as when it is operationalized as happiness. These results show that both aspects, subjective acculturation and SES, are important for immigrants' well-being. However, SES is still more important. Furthermore, both SES and belonging, when controlling for their common predictors, can be seen as independently associated with well-being.
It is noteworthy that, although both fitted models (for life satisfaction and for happiness) confirmed the postulated structure of associations, there were some differences in the strength of these associations. The findings indicate that life satisfaction is more dependent on SES and acculturation levels than happiness, and in turn, level of happiness is more sensitive to the experiences of discrimination. This observation further corroborates the notion that, although life satisfaction and happiness are both considered the constituting and correlated components of subjective well-being, they can nevertheless be considered as distinct (Selim, 2008;Tsou & Liu, 2001).
There are several limitations of the current study that should be considered. A larger sample than the one obtained for this study would have improved the statistical power of the model fit tests, so one must be cautious when interpreting the results. Secondly, the obtained sample is a convenience sample and imbalanced in terms of participants' gender and education level, which again suggests caution when interpreting study estimates. However, a very similar educational profile has been found in previous studies sampling first generation Polish immigrants in Austria (Czakon, 2014). It corresponds with the generally high percentage of people with higher education among the general population in Poland (Eurostat, 2022). Furthermore, neither the additionally conducted statistical analysis nor the previous research suggest that the obtained results may be gender specific. Future studies can explore the generalizability of these findings to other migrant groups, including some who are characterized by lower education level. When pondering whether results would generalize, one should also consider the geographical setting of the study, in this case in Vienna and among Polish immigrants. Although the proposed model includes a set of popular acculturation and SES indicators, which have been investigated in studies conducted in diverse settings (with different immigrant groups and in different locations) the proposed structure of relationships between variables should be further tested in other contexts in order to determine its generalizability. Thirdly, the cross-sectional design of the study diminishes the capacity to draw causal inferences from the obtained results. In order to make such inferences, a longitudinal study would be needed. Furthermore, in order to test the postulated pattern of relationships between acculturation, SES, and well-being, the study necessarily relied on quantitative data. However, to gain deeper understanding of immigrants' experiences in relation to their well-being, as well as better contextualize the findings, future studies may consider applying a mixed-methods design, thereby combining quantitative with qualitative data.

Conclusions
Generally, the findings of this study support those previous studies, which found that both acculturation and SES are significant predictors of immigrants' well-being (Angelini et al., 2015;e.g., Wiking et al., 2004). However, due to the use of structural equation modeling and breaking the broad concept of acculturation into several distinct indicators, it was possible to analyze the relationships between acculturation, SES, and well-being in more detail. The results demonstrate that SES, measured as subjective economic situation, is at least partially predicted by the two most popular indicators of acculturation: language proficiency and length of stay. Acculturation, therefore, can be associated with immigrants' well-being directly as well as indirectly through SES. Based on these findings, it can be beneficial for future studies to, rather than juxtaposing SES and acculturation when trying to predict well-being, include their mutual relationships in the tested models.
Several practical conclusions can be drawn from the findings of this study, as they indicate the conditions of immigrants achieving high levels of well-being. Firstly, the possibility to build their material wealth appears to be a crucial condition. This possibility can be fostered directly by providing immigrants free access to the labor market, assuring fair wages in the immigration country and by recognizing school certificates and work experience from the emigration country. The results also suggest an indirect way for helping immigrants improve their financial situation, namely, through facilitating better knowledge of the language of the immigration country. In this case, easily accessible and free language courses for immigrants appears to be of high value. It seems plausible that immigrants with higher language competences would have better chances for finding better paid employment. This could be especially true for the Austrian labor market where good German knowledge is a common condition for most skilled jobs. Secondly, in order to develop a sense of belonging that impacts well-being, again, good knowledge of the language of the immigration country appears to be important, but even more so social contact with the native population. Therefore, creating opportunities for immigrants to come into more intense and frequent contact with the native population could help them feel more at home in the new place of settlement. This suggests that such initiatives as volunteers' programs and networks where locals can support new immigrants, such as, for example, the befriending scheme (comp. Askins, 2015) or events promoting intercultural encounters and community building could significantly contribute to immigrants' well-being. Thirdly, the absence of discrimination against foreigners is another important condition. The relationship between discrimination and well-being is well-established in the empirical literature (Rudmin, 2009). A hostile and discriminating host environment can make it impossible for immigrants to thrive in the new place of settlement (Kutor et al., 2021).
And although discrimination was measured only as a control variable in this study, its direct and indirect association with well-being and sense of belonging to the new place of settlement is still visible in the model and further corroborates previous findings. These findings assert the importance of promoting an atmosphere of openness and a welcoming attitude towards immigrants, as well as anti-discriminatory practices.