Local-level immigration and life satisfaction: the EU enlargement experience in England and Wales
Local-level immigration and life satisfaction: the EU enlargement experience in England and Wales
The 2004 European Union enlargement resulted in an unprecedented wave of 1.5 million workers relocating from Eastern Europe to the UK. We study the links between this migrant inflow and life satisfaction of native residents in England and Wales. Combining the British Household Panel Survey with the Local Authority level administrative data from the Worker Registration Scheme, we find that higher levels of local immigration were associated with a decrease in life satisfaction among older, unemployed and lower-income people, and with an increase in life satisfaction among younger, employed, higher-income and better educated people. These findings are driven by the initial ‘migration shock’ – the inflows that occurred in the first two years after the enlargement. Overall, our study highlights the importance of local-level immigration in shaping the life satisfaction of receiving populations. We also argue that our results help explain the socio-demographic patterns observed in the UK Brexit vote.
175-193
Ivlevs, Artjoms
8be15dfe-f275-405f-89a5-94c7a16b7f42
Veliziotis, Michail
e43806b3-fdb5-494b-a624-04a5227d2fad
February 2018
Ivlevs, Artjoms
8be15dfe-f275-405f-89a5-94c7a16b7f42
Veliziotis, Michail
e43806b3-fdb5-494b-a624-04a5227d2fad
Ivlevs, Artjoms and Veliziotis, Michail
(2018)
Local-level immigration and life satisfaction: the EU enlargement experience in England and Wales.
Environment and Planning A, 50 (1), .
(doi:10.1177/0308518X17740895).
Abstract
The 2004 European Union enlargement resulted in an unprecedented wave of 1.5 million workers relocating from Eastern Europe to the UK. We study the links between this migrant inflow and life satisfaction of native residents in England and Wales. Combining the British Household Panel Survey with the Local Authority level administrative data from the Worker Registration Scheme, we find that higher levels of local immigration were associated with a decrease in life satisfaction among older, unemployed and lower-income people, and with an increase in life satisfaction among younger, employed, higher-income and better educated people. These findings are driven by the initial ‘migration shock’ – the inflows that occurred in the first two years after the enlargement. Overall, our study highlights the importance of local-level immigration in shaping the life satisfaction of receiving populations. We also argue that our results help explain the socio-demographic patterns observed in the UK Brexit vote.
Text
immigration_life_satisfaction_r2_Accepted
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 10 October 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 14 November 2017
Published date: February 2018
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 414947
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/414947
ISSN: 0308-518X
PURE UUID: 950ccf80-56c3-4c21-948c-053d342329c9
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 17 Oct 2017 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 05:48
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Artjoms Ivlevs
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics
