And What About the Family Back Home? International Migration and Happiness

Abstract In this study we use data on subjective well being and migration of family members in Cuenca, one of Ecuador's largest cities, to examine the impact of migration on the happiness of the family left behind. While a cursory examination of the data suggests that the heads of households that have experienced the migration of one or more family members are less happy, a more careful analysis reveals otherwise. Households that have been impacted by migration express equal levels of happiness as those households that have not been affected by migration. One plausible explanation for our finding is that the remittances that households receive following the migration of loved ones counteract the downsides to family emigration. Introduction International migration can be motivated by a number of factors. Some migrate in order to escape dire poverty. Others go into exile in search of religious or political freedoms. Some move to invest in education, others to join relatives abroad, and still others in pursuit of adventure and new opportunities. While a great deal of research has analyzed the short-run and long-run outcomes for those who move to new areas (e.g. Borjas, 2002; Chiswick, 2002; Smith, 2003; Card, 2005), in this paper we turn our focus to the family left behind. In particular, we consider whether international migration of one or more family members serves to increase or decrease the level of "happiness" of household members who remain in the home community. Understanding how migration affects migrants and their families is of considerable interest given that migration will likely touch increasing numbers of individuals in the world. First, according to demographic information, the incidence of migration has been rising. In 1970, about 2.2 percent of the world's population lived in a country other than their country of birth. In contrast, by 2005, the foreign born accounted for 3 percent of the world's population. (2) Second, emigration impacts more than those moving to another country. Legal, cultural, and monetary barriers to migration often make it difficult for whole families to migrate. The incidence of migration-impacted households can therefore easily change with public policy which ultimately accentuates family separations and dislocations. For example, Massey (2006) has noted that increased enforcement at the US/Mexico border--implemented to stem illegal immigration--has had the unintended effect of extending the stay of unauthorized immigrants who would normally periodically return home. Longer stays by unauthorized immigrant are likely to lead to longer-lasting and permanent family separations. A third reason for expecting migration to touch larger portions of the world population stems from policy shifts in immigration legislation toward preferences for skilled labor migration at the expense of family reunification. If legislation continues to be developed along these lines, it follows that a larger circle of individuals will be affected by migration due to longer-run family separations. Finally, rapid technological progress of the sort observed in the more recent decades is likely to continue, further reducing transportation and communication costs, easing travel, facilitating international migration and therefore increasing its incidence. (3) Given the expectation of greater family dislocations via migration, what are our priors on the impact of migration on happiness? We hypothesize that migration reduces happiness levels of the family left behind. The emigration of a household member is likely to directly cause disruptions in the household since the absent household member may have been contributing to the household via market or home production. Thus, in addition to discomfort stemming from the absence of loved ones, household and monetary responsibilities now need to be assumed by other family members. The reallocation of household chores and market work is likely to be costly for the remaining family members, reducing happiness levels. …