How immigration can make some UK-born residents feel worse off even if they aren’t

Published in The Conversation, September 6, 2019

Worries about the effects of immigration are prevalent in politics across Europe and the US. In the UK, for instance, concerns over immigration dominated much of the Brexit debate. For many, immigrants are seen as a source of competition for jobs and access to public services (irrespective of whether this is true or not).

Read the full article on The Conversation website

It’s not all about the economy stupid! Immigration and self-reported well-being in England

Abstract

While much is known regarding the effects of immigration for objective outcomes, relatively little is known regarding the effects for perceived well-being. By exploiting spatial and temporal variation in the net-inflows of foreign-born individuals across local areas in England, we examine the relationship between immigration and natives’ subjective well-being as captured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). We find small negative effects overall but that an analysis of the main effects masks significant differences across subgroups, with relatively older individuals, those with below-average household incomes, the unemployed and finally those without any formal educational qualifications experiencing much more substantive well-being losses than others. These observed well-being differentials are congruent with voting patterns evident in the recent UK referendum on EU membership. We put forward perceived as opposed to actual labour market competition and social identity as two potential explanations for the negative well-being impacts of immigration for natives.

Reference

Howley, P., Waqas, M., Moro, M., Delaney, L., & Heron, T. (2020). It’s Not All about the Economy Stupid! Immigration and Subjective Well-Being in EnglandWork, Employment and Society, 34: 1-18.

National Identity and Brexit

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between inflows of migrants into local areas and the self-reported well-being of natives. We document a negative association between inflows of migrants and the mental health of natives, but we uncover no significant relationship for life satisfaction. We find these estimated population level impacts masks considerable heterogeneity according to patterns of attachment to national identity. For people with an ethnic form (here proxied by Englishness), we find the disutility associated with immigration can be substantive, whereas for those with a civic form (Britishness) the estimated impact on mental health is not statistically significant (or substantive) and for life satisfaction positive. Our proposed explanation draws on identity economics which suggests that people assign themselves into social categories (e.g. English or British) with each category having different norms relating to how people should look and act. We put forward subjective well-being and in particular differences in national identity across individuals as an important factor underpinning the sharp variation in public attitudes towards immigration. More broadly, our analysis suggests that focusing on objective indicators, as is the norm (e.g. wages, unemployment), may give a limited understanding of the consequences of immigration for the welfare of natives.

Keywords: mental well-being, immigration, national identity, social identity theory, immigration attitudes

Reference

Howley, Peter and Waqas, Muhammad (2021) National identity and Brexit. Leeds University Business School Working Paper Forthcoming. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3464210

Open Minds, Open Borders: Immigration and the Mental Well-being of Natives

Abstract

While there is a rich literature, particularly in the economic sciences, exploring the consequences of immigration for economic outcomes, we know comparatively little about the impact for psychological well-being. Through linking a large geo-referenced longitudinal household survey with local-level immigration data, we document a negative relationship between inflows of migrants into local areas and the psychological well-being of natives living in those areas. The main novel feature of this work is that we demonstrate how these main effects mask considerable heterogeneity according to differences in underlying psychological dispositions. For some groups, such as those with high scores on constructs measuring importance of ethnicity to one’s self concept, and low scores on openness and particularised trust, the negative estimated impacts associated with inflows of migrants can be substantive. On the other hand, we find that immigration is positively associated with the psychological well-being of individuals with high scores on openness and particularised trust. More broadly, our results highlight the importance of underlying psychological dispositions, as opposed to more commonly examined visible differences between people (e.g. socio-demographic traits), in moderating the relationship between immigration and psychological well-being.

Keywords: psychological well-being; personality; prejudice; openness; identity; trust

Reference

Howley, Peter and Waqas, Muhammad and Ocean, Neel (2020) Open Minds, Open Borders: Individual differences in the relationship between immigration and psychological well-being. Leeds University Business School Working Paper . DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3321720

Understanding Society Scientific Conference 2019

2nd – 4th July, University of Essex

Immigration and self-reported well-being in England
Peter Howley, University of Leeds

Abstract

In contrast to economic outcomes, relatively little is known about the impact of immigration on natives’ subjective perceptions of their wellbeing. By exploiting spatial and temporal variation in the inflows of migrants into local areas, we find that immigration has a modest negative impact on the subjective well-being of natives as captured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Certain sub-groups such as relatively older individuals, those with below average household incomes, the unemployed and finally those without any formal educational qualifications experience much more substantive well-being losses than others. These observed wellbeing differentials are congruent with voting patterns evident in the recent UK referendum on EU membership. We put forward perceived as opposed to actual labour market competition and social identity as two potential explanations for the negative wellbeing impacts of immigration for natives.

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