WELL-BEING OF MIGRANTS IN THE LABOR MARKET (WELLMIGLAB)

The research project Well-being of migrants in the labor market (WELLMIGLAB) will contribute to the knowledge on the subjective well-being of migrants and refugees in the labor markets of their host societies. The project addresses important gaps in research on immigrant integration which is still mostly studied from an objective point of view by focusing on socio- economic indicators, such as income. The project will be done within a 12-month research stay in Canada (McMaster University and Statistics Canada) and a 6-month return phase in Austria (University of Salzburg). In all three institutions, the project leader will work together with his hosting researchers who are leading experts in the fields of migration, well-being and the labor market integration of immigrants: In Canada: Prof. Lisa Kaida (months 1-9), Department of Sociology, McMaster University, Hamilton; Prof. Feng Hou (months 10-12), Analysis Branch of Statistics Canada, Ottawa. In Austria: Prof. Wolfgang Aschauer (months 13-18), Department of Political Science and Sociology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg. The WELLMIGLAB project will apply quantitative methods. Based on the collaboration with the hosting researchers and the project leaders physical presence in Canada, Statistics Canadas unique longitudinal and administrative microdata (CCHS-IMDB linkage file) on the labor market integration and subjective well-being of immigrants and refugees (as well as the native born) can be used for the analysis.

The research project WELL-BEING OF MIGRANTS IN THE LABOR MARKET (WELLMIGLAB) was conducted in the framework of an 8.5-month research stay in Canada (McMaster University in Hamilton/Ontario, host: Dr. Lisa Kaida) as well as a 6-month return phase in Austria (University of Salzburg, host: Dr. Wolfgang Aschauer). The global question was: How do negative labor market experiences in host societies affect immigrants' subjective well-being (measured by life satisfaction, perceived mental health etc.) in comparison to other domains of life, and which differences persist in comparison to non-immigrants? The first analysis was based on the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) 2015-2016 and compared the effects of perceived work stress on life satisfaction among immigrants and non-immigrants in Canada. Multivariate regression analyses for the most part showed that immigrants have a significantly lower life satisfaction than non-immigrants and that the respective work stress variables have significantly negative effects on life satisfaction. However, the analysis found no significant interaction effect between immigrant status and work stress on life satisfaction. In the second analysis, I used the linkage of the CCHS to the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) consisting of comprehensively linked survey-administrative data and investigated the long-term impacts of initial detrimental labor market outcomes (i.e. a mainly low-income status in the first five years in Canada) on immigrant subjective well-being. After I gained access to the Statistics Canada Research Data Centre (RDC) at McMaster, generating the final data set out of the large numerous data files from the CCHS and the IMDB was an extensive time-consuming task. The final data set comprised circa 34,400 respondents (and a total of circa 502,500 observations/rows). The descriptive findings showed several significant but only minor differences in the subjective well-being outcomes between immigrants who had initial economic challenges and those without such challenges. Moreover, those differences were pronounced against my expectation as immigrants with initial economic hardships had even better outcomes in terms of life satisfaction, perceived mental health and perceived health. Multivariate regression analyses identified that the experience of initial economic challenges only has a very weak and again positive significant impact on immigrant life satisfaction, perceived mental health and perceived health which also disappears in case of life satisfaction and perceived mental health after controlling for a set of socio-demographic variables. The regression analyses on life satisfaction and perceived mental health revealed that most of the domain satisfaction variables had a significant positive effect (e.g., leisure-satisfaction). As a result of the return phase a proposal for a research project to the FWF for exploring the quality of life across cultures was submitted. For preparing a thorough proposal, qualitative (two focus groups) and quantitative (one online survey) pretests were realized.