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Determinants of Life Satisfaction of Economic Migrants Coming from Developing Countries to Countries with Very High Human Development: a Systematic Review

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Abstract

Expectations held by economic migrants about improving their post-mobility life satisfaction are not always met. Therefore, there is a need to guide the design of evidence-based policies and interventions to enhance life satisfaction equity between immigrant and host populations in receiving contexts. This study aims to identify the main determinants that impact life satisfaction of economic migrants coming from developing countries and settled in receiving societies that have a very high Human Development Index according to the United Nations Development Programme (Human Development Indices and Indicators, 2018, New York: UNDP). Following a systematic review process using the PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, 30 articles published between 2005 and 2018 were selected. The results indicate that economic migrants’ life satisfaction is facilitated by twelve determinants across three categories: structural integration (access to culturally competent community resources, housing conditions, legal status, and working conditions); social and cultural inclusion (adaptation to the target culture, community engagement, perceived discrimination, and social support network); and individual strengths (financial security, health, linguistic competence, and roots). An integrative conceptual framework of economic migrants’ life satisfaction is provided and implications for research and professional intervention in the field are discussed.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Regional Government of Andalusia’s Directorate General for the Coordination of Migration Policies under Grant CONTR/2018/51619.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Psicología, Departamento de Psicología Social, Universidad de Sevilla, C/Camilo José Cela s/n, 41018, Sevilla, Spain

    Virginia Paloma, Marta Escobar-Ballesta, Blanca Galván-Vega & Juan Diego Díaz-Bautista

  2. Facultad de Psicología, Departamento de Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad de Granada, Campus de Cartuja s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Isabel Benítez

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  1. Virginia Paloma
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  2. Marta Escobar-Ballesta
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  3. Blanca Galván-Vega
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  4. Juan Diego Díaz-Bautista
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Correspondence to Virginia Paloma.

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Table 4 Characteristics table of the selected publications in the systematic review
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Paloma, V., Escobar-Ballesta, M., Galván-Vega, B. et al. Determinants of Life Satisfaction of Economic Migrants Coming from Developing Countries to Countries with Very High Human Development: a Systematic Review. Applied Research Quality Life 16, 435–455 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-020-09832-3

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