Migration and Wellbeing: Some reflections

1. Migration and Wellbeing: Some reflections Mauricio Cárdenas (withVincenzo Di Maro and Carolina Mejía) InterAmerican Development Bank’s project on Quality of Life Conference on Regional Trade Agreements, Migration and Remittances: Focus on CAFTA and Latin America Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX April 12, 2008

2. Research Questions • Effects of migration on wellbeing. • Previous emphasis on the effects of remittances on poverty and human capital investment. • Interesting to go beyond the relationship between migration, income, and choice (consumption of tangible goods and services). • Migration may have welfare reducing effects such as family fragmentation. • For example, does migration offset (or amplify) vulnerabilities?

3. Outline • The four dimensions of “Quality of Life” • Livability and migration • Satisfaction with life, vulnerabilities and migration • Econometric results • Conclusions

4. Outline • The four dimensions of “Quality of Life” • Livability and migration • Satisfaction with life, vulnerabilities and migration • Econometric results • Conclusions

5. Veenhoven’s(2000) taxonomy of QoL

6. Focus on two QoL dimensions and their relationship with migration

7. Outline • The four dimensions of “Quality of Life” • Livability and migration • Satisfaction with life, vulnerabilities and migration • Econometric results • Conclusions

8. Outer quality of life chances: LivabilityRojas (2008) The external conditions or environmental opportunities that are assumed to be relevant for living a good life Three livability areas Political livability Economic livability Social livability

9. Outer quality of life chances Livability Yearly GNP growth People below poverty line Yearly inflation rate Economic index GiniCoefficient Per capita GNP

10. Outer quality of life chances Livability Public expenditure on health Social index Social contributions Subsidies and other transfers Public expenditure on education

11. Outer quality of life chances Livability Political rights Rule of law Voice and accountability Political index Political stability Control over corruption Civil Freedoms

12. Outer quality of life chances Livability • Variables from various sources • Country-level variables • Categories • Ordinal codification: 1 to 6 • Aggregation by livability area: mean values • Three livability-area indicators • Economic, social, and political • Overall livability indicator

13. Outer quality of life chances Livability 1/3 Economic Index 1/3 Social Index 1/3 Political Index = Overall livability Index Continuous on scale of 1 to 6 Country level variable

14. Outer quality of life chances Livability

15. Livability and net outflow of emigrants (% pop.):Averages for 1995, 2000, and 2005

16. Livability and net outflow of emigrants (rankings):Averages for 1995, 2000, and 2005

17. Livability ranking and percentage of population living abroad in 2005

18. Livability and remittances as percentage of GDP:2005

19. Outline • The four dimensions of “Quality of Life” • Livability and migration • Satisfaction with life, vulnerabilities, and migration • Econometric results • Conclusions

20. Veenhoven’staxonomy of QoL

21. Data • Gallup World Poll (2006 and 2007), 132 countries. • Sample: cross section; around 1000 individual observations per country. • Latinobarómetrosurvey (1995-2005), 18 LAC countries. • Sample: representative of 100% of population in all countries but Chile (70%).

22. We focus on three measures of perceived wellbeing from the Gallup Survey and one from Latinobarómetro Gallup World Poll • Overall satisfaction with life (ladder question): From zero to ten, where do you personally feel at this time, assuming that the higher score the better you feel about your life, and the lower score the worse you feel about it? • Satisfaction with living standards: Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your standard of living, all the things you can buy and do? • Satisfaction with freedom: [In your country] Are you satisfied with the freedom to choose what you do with your life? Latinobarómetro • Overall satisfaction with life: In general terms, how satisfied are you with your life? (1) Very satisfied, (2) fairly satisfied, (3) satisfied or (4) not very satisfied.

23. Life satisfaction (ladder question) Note: Black bar is average value, white bar is standard deviation. Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll wave 2007.

24. Box Plot of (current) life satisfaction measure or ladder question Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll wave 2007.

25. Satisfaction with living standards Note: Black bar is average value, white bar is standard deviation. Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll wave 2007.

26. Life Satisfaction – Latinobarómetro, waves 2001, 2003 and 2004 Source: Authors’ calculations using Latinobarómetro waves 2001, 2003 and 2004 ; Notes: first bar is “not satisfied at all with one’s life”, second bar “not much satisfied”, third bar “quite satisfied” and, fourth bar “very satisfied”

27. Recent interest in the relation of perceived wellbeing and income • Wealthier people are, on average, happier than poor ones (Easterlin, 1974; Oswald, 1997; Diener et al, 2003). • Easterlin Paradox: Wealthier countries are found to be happier than poor ones but happiness seems to rise with income up to a point, but not beyond it. • However, Deaton (2007) using the 2006 Gallup Poll shows that across countries average happiness is strongly related to per capita national income. • This would rule out the existence of a critical level of per capita income above which income has no further effect on happiness.

28. Life satisfaction, GDP per capita and age Note: Deaton (2007).

29. Not just income: the role of insecurity • Deprivation tends to reduce happiness, but very poor people can be happier than other groups. • The wellbeing of those who escaped poverty is often undermined by insecurity associated to the risk of falling back to poverty. • For these individuals, reported well-being is often lower than that of the poor (Graham and Pettinato, 2002). • In particular, the issue we want to study is how insecurity at different levels affects perceived well-being. • We focus on three measures of insecurity: nutritional, personal, and income insecurity.

30. Strategy • We want to know which type of insecurity (nutritional, personal, and income) plays a greater role. A few caveats: • Interconnections between measures of insecurity (likely to confound results) • Selection issues (job insecurity proxies are defined only for those who work). • We first study the relationship between perceived well-being and each of the types of insecurity in isolation, and then study of the relative importance of different types of insecurity in an unified framework. • Secondly, we analyze if migration (or having a migrant relative or friend to rely on) is related to wellbeing and if attenuates (or amplify) the relationship between insecurities and wellbeing.

31. Outline • The four dimensions of “Quality of Life” • Livability and migrations • Satisfaction with life, vulnerabilities and migration • Econometric results • Conclusions

32. Nutritional insecurity • Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed? (NI money, not enough money) • Have there been times in the past 12 months when you or your family have gone hungry? (NI hungry, gone hungry)

33. “Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?” (proportion that answered YES) Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll wave 2007.

34. “Have there been times in the past 12 months when you or your family have gone hungry?” (proportion that answered YES) Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll wave 2007.

35. Nutritional insecurity by income quintiles Note: For each income quintile first bar is “nutins money”, second=”nutins hungry”. Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll wave 2007.

36. Income (job) insecurity • Do you think you could lose your job in the next six months? (job_insec) • How worried you are of losing your job or staying unemployed in the next 12 months? “Not worried”, “Just a bit worried”, “Worried”, “Very worried” (Latinobarómetro) • Do you think the labour regulation protects workers in this country? “Not protected at all”, “just a bit protected”, “Quite protected”, “Very protected” (Latinobarómetro) • From 1 to 10 where 1 is “completely secure” “ and 10 is “no job security at all” how much job security do you feel you have currently? … you had 5 years ago? (Latinobarómetro)

37. “Do you think you could loose your job in the next six months?” (proportion that answered YES) Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll wave 2007.

38. Income/job insecurity by income quintiles Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll wave 2007.

39. Personal insecurity • Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you live? (safe walking) • Have you had money or property stolen from you or another household member within the past 12 months? (stolen) • Have you been assaulted or mugged within the past 12 months? (mugged) • Are there gangs in the area where you live? (2007) (gangs) • Are there illicit drug trafficking or drug sales in the area where you live? (2007) (drug)

40. “Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you live?” (proportion that answered YES) Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll wave 2007.

41. “Have you had money or property stolen from you or another household member within the past 12 months?” (proportion that answered YES) Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll wave 2007.

42. “Have you been assaulted or mugged within the past 12 months?” (proportion that answered YES) Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll wave 2007.

43. “Are there gangs in the area where you live?” (proportion that answered YES) Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll wave 2007.

44. “Are there illicit drug trafficking or drug sales in the area where you live?” (proportion that answered YES) Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll wave 2007.

45. Victimization indicators by income quintiles Note: For each income quintile first bar is “safe walking”, second=”stolen”, third=”mugged”, 4=”gangs”, 5=”drug”. Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll wave 2007.

46. Incidence of different types of insecurities in Latin America Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll 2007 wave.

47. Migration related questions • Have any members of your household, aged 15 to 60, gone to live in a foreign country permanently or temporarily in the past five years? • Two variables: family abroad 1 (yes, still there), family abroad 2 (yes, still there and yes, has returned) • Do you have relatives or friends who are living in another country whom you can count on to help you when you need them, or not? (help from abroad) • Is the city or area where you live a good place or not for immigrants from other countries?

48. Migration related questions in Gallup Note: Black bar is average value, white bar is standard deviation. Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll 2007 wave.

49. “Have any members of your household, aged 15 to 60, gone to live in a foreign country permanently or temporarily in the past five years?” (proportion that answered YES, still there) Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll 2007 wave.

50. “Have any members of your household, aged 15 to 60, gone to live in a foreign country permanently or temporarily in the past five years?” (proportion that answered YES, still there and returned) Source: Authors’ calculations using Gallup World Poll 2007 wave.