UK immigrants’ relative income and life satisfaction – The relevance of comparison frames from a multi-generational perspective

• In Event: 3251 - Section on International Migration Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 5. Comparative Immigrant Integration

Abstract

With a focus on the immigrant population, this study examines how the association between a relative income position and life satisfaction varies when the comparison frame changes. Drawing data from Understanding Society in the UK between 2009 and 2015, this study confirms the shift of the comparison frame from the source to host county within the immigrant population as a whole; namely, income comparisons with the mainstream and co-ethnic groups in the host country matters more than that with the source-country population for one’s life satisfaction. Furthermore, the relevance of comparison frames to life satisfaction varies across immigrant generations. Income comparison with the source-country population is more relevant to life satisfaction of the 1st generation than to that of the 1.5 and 2nd generations. On the contrary, 1.5 and 2nd generations consider income comparisons within the host country more relevant. In particular, favorable income comparison with the mainstream group in the host country is the most relevant to life satisfaction of the 2nd-generation, followed by the 1.5-generation, and then by the 1st-generation immigrants.

Authors

• Jing Shen, University of Mannheim

• Irena Kogan, University of Mannheim