Bringing Happiness Into the Study of Migration and Its Consequences: What, Why, and How?

Abstract

To support migrants and policy makers in making more of migration, the migrant's overall outcome should be at the core of migration research. Effective evaluation of the consequences of migration is impaired, however, by a lack of a clear framework to examine all-encompassing outcomes. This review paper paves the way for a better understanding of whether and under what conditions migration benefits migrants (and others) and lays the foundation for the study of migrant happiness by specifying what insights research on migrants’ subjective well-being (happiness) can provide for advancing the study of international migration and its consequences.