Immigration Attitudes and Subjective Well-Being: A Matter of Identity?

Drawing on previous literature that has found individuals’ subjective well-being (SWB) to be correlated with social and political attitudes, we study the relationship between individuals’ attitudes towards immigration and their SWB. We treat immigration attitudes as an aspect of individuals’ self-image and hypothesize that, through a mechanism of moral satisfaction, greater immigration-friendliness is associated with greater SWB (H1). We further hypothesize that greater disparity of immigration attitudes yields social antagonism and as such is associated with less SWB (H2). Finally, we hypothesize that the SWB benefit (if any) from immigration-friendliness increases in the disparity of the respective attitudes, as greater disparity permits individuals to differentiate themselves from others, thus contributing to their sense of identity (H3a). Alternatively, the SWB benefit from immigration-friendliness (if any) may increase in the degree of consensus (lack of disparity), as greater consensus may indicate the existence of a social norm, conformity with which yields SWB through social approval (H3b). Using 227,596 observations from 35 European countries, 2002–2018, we find multivariate correlational relationships consistent with H1, H2 and H3a.