Well-being & Migration: the Hungary-Austria Migration Nexus

Although there is no universal definition of happiness and life satisfaction, it is firmly believed that individuals usually act to improve their well-being and that this is the final goal of their choices and actions. From this perspective voluntary migration can be considered a tool to reach this desired outcome. There is a growing consensus in the literature that aside from material life conditions, non- material factors such as family relationships, work-life balance, health, and personal freedom also play crucial roles in a persons well-being. However, we know surprisingly little about the relationship between this subjective well-being and migration in general, which is a relatively new segment of social scientific investigations with few empirical findings, particularly from Central Europe. How does an immigrants subjective well-being change as a consequence of migration; does it improve linearly with material gains or does it fail to reach the expected level due to disappointing side effects? Are potential migrants very dissatisfied with their lives, or is just the opposite is the case? Which non- material factors are able to counterbalance the importance of material factors when it comes to deciding whether to migrate or not? These are only a few of the questions the project will ask in the context of the Hungarian-Austrian migration processes. The approach of this project is innovative not only because it links the concepts of well-being and migration, but also because it interprets their two-way causal relationship within one research framework. Such a complex project requires a holistic perspective, thus the experts involved cover a broad range of disciplines. Two research teams from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna) and Corvinus University (Budapest) will run the project in cooperation with the University of Vienna. Apart from literature reviews and analyses of existing data, two additional comprehensive surveys will be conducted in Hungary and in Austria. Focus groups, roundtable discussions and expert interviews will help identify further important aspects, and their results will be combined with those of the polls and official statistics. The empirical findings of the project will contribute to improving the existing theoretical literature and to developing policy options for political decision-makers concerning the management of the Hungary-Austria migration processes.

Sustainable social development and improved quality of life are shared goals across societies. Although well-being has been studied for decades, a key question remains open: what material and immaterial factors shape subjective well-being (SWB), and through what mechanisms? The innovative approach of the MIGWELL project lay in examining the two-way relationship between migration and SWB. The research analysed both the impact of migration on SWB among Hungarian immigrants in Austria and the effect of well-being differences on emigration potential in Hungary. Its novelty lay above all in being the first study to explore the Hungarian-Austrian migration nexus through the lens of SWB (cognitive aspects, affective and eudaimonic components). As the two countries represented a typical segment of the East-West development slope, the findings carried broader relevance for Europe as a whole. The project employed a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative techniques, including focus groups, expert, narrative and cognitive interviews, and surveys conducted in both countries. Quantitative analyses drew on existing data from EU-SILC and the 2016 Hungarian Microcensus, as well as a representative survey of 1,000 respondents in Hungary, a supplementary survey of 375 individuals with migration intentions, and a snowball-sample survey of 310 Hungarians living in Austria. In the survey, Hungarians residing in Austria reported an average life satisfaction score of 7.4, which lay between the Austrian average of 7.9 and the Hungarian average of 7.0. This pattern was reflected across most life domains. A notable exception was income satisfaction, where Hungarians in Austria reported higher levels than the Austrian average. Conversely, they expressed lower satisfaction than those living in Hungary with regard to housing, social relationships and work-life balance. A striking duality emerged in affective well-being: Hungarians in Austria experienced both positive emotions (such as happiness and calmness) and negative emotions (including stress and loneliness) more frequently than Hungarians in Hungary. Based on respondents' retrospective assessments, average life satisfaction among Hungarians moving to Austria increased from 5.9 to 7.4, placing them squarely between the Hungarian and Austrian averages. Causal statistical models confirmed this relationship, indicating a smaller but still notable increase of around 0.8 points on a 0-10 scale. It was also important to note that 28% of Hungarian migrants experienced no substantial change in well-being after moving to Austria, or even a decline. Four key challenges to integration were identified: language barriers, the weakening of personal relationships, overqualification, and certain aspects of a transnational lifestyle. These issues were addressed in a dedicated policy recommendations paper. Both the theoretical advancements and the empirical findings of the project were expected to contribute to more effective policy-making in Hungary and Austria alike.