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Olli Kangas Research Director, Social Insurance Institution of Finland

Behind the open sea somewhere there is the land of my dreams : happiness among immigrants in Europe. Olli Kangas Research Director, Social Insurance Institution of Finland Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Southern Denmark. WHY HAPPINESS AND IMMIGRANTS.

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Olli Kangas Research Director, Social Insurance Institution of Finland

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  1. Behind the open seasomewherethere is the land of my dreams: happinessamongimmigrants in Europe Olli Kangas Research Director, Social Insurance Institution of Finland Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Southern Denmark

  2. WHY HAPPINESS AND IMMIGRANTS • The allusions in the title fits very well to my position as a H. C. Andersen Professor in the happy country of Denmark • Klaus Petersen, my Danish colleague, once asked me whether a Finn becomes more happy when s/he moves to Denmark -- the country often depicted to be the happiest country in the world. • The study is a humble attempt to answer Klaus’ inquiry.

  3. Contents • Whylife-satisfaction and happiness? • Data • Happyimmigrants live in happycountries • Welfarestateregimematters • What is the new Sampo • Conclusion: A personalstatement

  4. Two traditions of welfare research • Objective measures • Resources: GDP, income, poverty, level of education, employment etc.matter • No interest in feelings • E.g. The Swedish level of living surveys • Resurces: money, education, employment, family etc… • Subjective measures • Interest in end-status; feelings matter • Finnish Erik Allardt’s having, loving and being • EU statistics provide more and more data on subjective welfare • Happiness is cool even for the hard-boiled economists

  5. Happiness – a realthing? • Some argue that happiness is not a real thing and not a proper object for scientific inquiry • Psychologists, armed with fancy brain probing devices, argue that happiness is electric activity in the frontal part of the brains • From the social science point of view: • which kind of social phenomena cause positive electric waves in ourbrains

  6. In Kalevela, the Finnish national epos... • There is a story about the SAMPO • a happiness and wealth generating magicaldevice • Made by the black-smith Ilmarinen • Paintingby Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1893

  7. But, as usually a fight about the ownership of such a useful device immediately began in the following fight the Sampo, unluckily enough, was lost to the sea bottom never has it been found again Akseli Gallen-Kallela 1896

  8. Therefore... • There is a constantseekaftercompensatorymeasures for Sampo - at home and more and moreabroad • In this presentation I will look at someofthosemeasuresthatcontributetohappiness and lifesatisfactionamongimmigants in Europe: • The regimesofhappinessamong the Europeancountries in the 2000s • Who is happy and who is less happy? • Howcanweexplainhappiness? • Whichfactorscontributetohappiness in Europe?

  9. Data • European Social Survey (ESS) • Since 2002 the ESS has been carried out at two-year intervals • http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org • The latest year of observation used in this study was 2010. • The size of the cross-sectional data varies from the low 579 in Iceland (2004) to the sample size of 3 032 in Germany in 2010.

  10. In the individual waves, the number of immigrants in most countries is too low for reliable statistical analyses. • Data for different years are pooled • 17 837 observations on immigrants in 28 countries. • The smallest sample is from Bulgaria • 50 observations • the largest one, the Swiss sample, contains 1 886 immigrants • Immigrant status is attached to each respondent born outside the country of residence

  11. Furthermore • Countriescollapsed into welfareregimes • Nordic • Den, Fin, Nor, Swe • Central European • Aut, Bel, Fra, Ger, Lux, Nl, Swi • Anglo-American • Ire, UK • Southern European • Cyp, Gre, Ita, Por, Spa • Post-socialst • Bul, Cro, Cze, Est, Hun, Lat, Pol, Rus, Slove, Sla, Ukr

  12. Happiness & life-satisfaction • two indicators for subjective well-being in the ESS. • a) Happiness: “How happy are you?” • b) Life satisfaction: “How satisfied you are with your life as a whole?” • The respondents could express their happiness on a continuous scale that runs from 0 ‘extremely unhappy’ to 10 ‘extremely happy’. • Here subjective well-being = (a+b)/2

  13. Strongcorrelationbetweenlife-satisfaction and happiness • To gain a more robust measure for subjective well-being, the two variables were merged • (happiness + life satisfaction)/2. • 0 = very unhappy • 10 = very happy

  14. Happiness, gender, regime of birth and the regime of residence

  15. Inequalities and happiness

  16. Money and happiness • - somecorrelationbetween GDP per capita and happiness • - buthugedifferencesbetweencountries at the sameprosperitylevel (eg EST vs. CYP) • - Money mattersbutinstitutionsrule

  17. Ingredients for the new Sampo???

  18. Whatare the elements of Ilmarinen’smodern SAMPO? Equalsociety for all High (inter-generational) incomemobility Lowlevel of poverty Adequatesafetynet in allrespects Non-corruptinstitutions -> Highlevel of trust Macro levelcharacteristicsexplainmorethanindividuallevelvariables Is everybody the black-smithofhis/herownhappiness?

  19. Happiness in Denmark

  20. Land offairy tales: to be an immigrant and happy “Behind the open sea, somewhere thereis the Land of my dreams,But without wings I can't flyand prisoner I'm of the groundBut in my dreams,Which fly so highI walk there every night…” • Unto Mononen’s tango ”The land ofmy dreams” (1956)

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