Does family matter for recent immigrants’ life satisfaction?

Abstract

Using the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada, a nationally representative survey of recent immigrants, this paper explores the influence of coresidents on satisfaction with life in Canada. Results of cross-sectional logistic regression models indicate that except for living with young children shortly after arrival, living arrangements have a null influence on life satisfaction, when taking into account explanatory factors of demographic characteristics and modes of incorporation. To study how living arrangements influence changes in life satisfaction over time, I estimate fixed- and random-effects logistic regression models. Results from longitudinal analyses show that coresidents and changes in coresidents have null effects on changes in life satisfaction. Putting together results from cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, findings suggest that characteristics of family living arrangements may be significant for interpersonal comparisons of satisfaction, but not for intrapersonal comparisons. This indicates that time-constant characteristics including personality, a key factor influencing satisfaction, as well as immigrant entry status and ethnicity may be selecting individuals into types of living arrangements. Overall, findings show large and significant influences of indicators of economic integration on satisfaction in the destination country, while coresidents and living arrangements have a small influence.

Introduction

People often migrate in search of a better life. To date, most research concentrates on whether or not migrants achieve a better life in economic terms. Scholars commonly measure integration in terms of income, educational attainment, or even naturalization rates, but still relatively little is known about how migrants assess their own life in the destination country (De Jong, Chamratrithirong, & Tran, 2002; Easterlin, 2006; Suh, Diener, & Frank, 1996). While recent research has begun to assess changes in immigrants’ subjective well-being (Amit, 2009, Bartram, 2010, Bartram, 2011; Dion, Dion, & Banerjee, 2009; Houle and Schellenberg, 2010, Safi, 2010), the contribution of family living arrangements to immigrants’ life satisfaction (hereafter, satisfaction) has been mostly overlooked.

The family is undoubtedly central to the migration experience; family factors into the decision to migrate and influences how migrants adapt to the receiving society (Boyd, 1989, Levitt and Jaworsky, 2007, Mincer, 1978, Pessar, 1999, Portes and Rumbaut, 2006). Immigrants commonly move along with other family members or choose destinations where relatives and friends have already settled (Liu, 2013, Massey et al., 1993).¹ Immigrants may turn to established family and friends for support, in finding housing or employment, and learning a new language. At the same time, arriving with dependents is associated with stress and everyday challenges (De Jong et al., 2002, Ying, 1996).

How do these family ties, and associated living arrangements, impact satisfaction in the destination and over time? Most previous research on immigration life satisfaction and living arrangements focuses on the elderly, missing a large portion of the immigrant population. At the same time, studies of the influence of family on life satisfaction focus primarily on union status, rather than extended family or living arrangements. Given the greater likelihood of immigrants to live in non-family households, it is likely that intimate partnerships extend beyond union status alone. The current paper bridges and expands these diverse bodies of research to better understand how immigrants’ satisfaction with life in their new country relates to living arrangements. Specifically, this paper addresses (1) how different living arrangements influence life satisfaction both initially upon arrival as well as four years later; (2) how they influence changes in life satisfaction; and (3) how changes in living arrangements influence changes in life satisfaction.

To answer these questions, I use data from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada. I first estimate cross-sectional logistic regression models of the impact of living arrangements on life satisfaction at two different stages of the adaptation process: six months and four years after arrival. I then use fixed-effects logistic regression models to estimate the influence of coresidents on changes in satisfaction over time, accounting for personality and other time constant individual characteristics, and further compare these results to random-effects models.

Studying these processes in Canada is instructive. Canada has one of the highest immigration rates in the world; around one in every five people is foreign born (Statistics Canada, 2007a). The 1967 Immigration Act implemented a points system to select immigrants in terms of their skills, work experience and demographic characteristics.² Immigrants are also admitted for humanitarian and family reunification considerations.³ Consequently, immigrants to Canada are from diverse countries of origin, and most are visible minorities.⁴ Life satisfaction and how immigrants assess their experience will impact emigration and settlement patterns, future immigration (De Jong and Gardner, 1981, Mara and Landesmann, 2013, Massey and Akresh, 2006), and ultimately, social cohesion and national identity (Frideres, 2008, Reitz, 2009). Immigration will be a key contributor to population growth and source of ethnic diversity in many countries all over the world. Within this context, understanding the determinants of immigrant satisfaction is of primary importance.