Why do immigrants become less happy? Explanations for the decrease in life satisfaction of immigrants in Germany over time

Abstract

We investigate the life satisfaction (LS) trajectories of immigrants in Germany. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from 1984 to 2015, we find that recently arrived immigrants are more satisfied with their lives than comparable German natives. However, their LS decreases more over time than that of their German counterparts; that is, we observe a negative years-since-migration (YSM)–LS association. We propose and test five possible explanations for this observation: (1) differential effects of declining health between natives and immigrants, (2) the stability of the YSM–LS association over time and across samples, (3) the effects of non-random sample attrition, (4) immigrants’ integration in German society, and (5) differences in the YSM effect across ethnic backgrounds. We find that the decrease in LS among immigrants over time is mostly explained by a combination of deteriorating health and an increase in the importance of health for LS. The extent to which immigrants’ LS changes over time in the host country partly depends on their country of origin. The results suggest that there is scope for policies targeted towards immigrants’ better utilisation of the healthcare system and their integration in host societies to improve immigrants’ LS.