Thread by @NiskanenCenter

NEW POLICY BRIEF from @JeremyLNeufeld: Economists have long touted the material benefits of immigration. But less work has been done on how immigration impacts subjective well-being.

Here’s how happiness research can inform policy decisions 1/ niskanencenter.org/the-internatio…

Objective measures of income like gross domestic product (GDP) and GDP per capita are imperfect indicators of welfare. While material well-being can certainly set the stage for happiness, it doesn’t tell the whole story. 2/

Happiness research asks individuals about their happiness directly. This allows economists to compare the relative importance of various well-being factors, allowing them to paint a more complete picture. 3/

Some of the factors associated with higher average national happiness include:
✅Higher average income
✅Greater social support
✅Higher life expectancy
✅Greater equality
✅Higher perceived freedom to make choices
✅Less perceived corruption 4/

Empirical research indicates that migrants tend to show substantive gains in welfare. “Happiness research has suggested migrants find material improvements more satisfying and conducive to their well-being than non-migrants” 5/

Material gains aside, immigrants seem to become happier when they migrate to happier countries.

And immigration can increase overall happiness among native-born inhabitants too. See the positive relationship between native/foreign-born inhabitants of a country below. 6/

“Natives, like migrants, stand to benefit from increased objective well-being. The economic literature on the objective well-being of natives is large, but in short, it suggests that on average, natives will benefit…” writes @JeremyLNeufeld 7/

But in addition to reinforcing what economists have long known, happiness research can inform immigration policy in the United States. 8/

A few additional implications of the research:
✅Keeping families together matters more than permanence of immigration status
✅Legal rights afforded to migrants beyond work authorization may be unimportant if these migrants cannot bring their families with them. 9/

In a word, happiness research largely reinforces what economists have long known about migration: Migration has enormous potential to improve the lives of migrants themselves, natives in receiving countries, and those whom migrants leave behind. 10/

Policymakers would do well to study happiness research in order to craft specific solutions to the immigration process that afford the greatest satisfaction to native and non-native-born residents alike.

Read the full report to learn more. 11/11 niskanencenter.org/the-internatio…