Objective Article About Immigration

[Guest TheBlueCat]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-28/the-high-price-of-immigration.html

I thought this was particularly interesting:

But the study carefully measured the effects both on happiness and on the ladder of life. One year after migrating, there were no significant effects on either. After four years, there were still no effects on the ladder of life, but people had become significantly less happy, by 0.8 points on a five-point scale.

I've seen this a lot myself here in Canada with Brits who come over and are initially happy but become progressively less happy as they start to lose touch with home and, at the same time, don't form new links here.

[onlyme2]

If you take the case migrants with high skills doing crap jobs, maybe the realization that they have thrown away any chance of ever entering the profession which presumably they wanted to join when they first took further education. Good money initially for dong a low skill job but they might ave been better sticking out for a skilled opportunity in their home country,

[StainlessSteelCat]

So money don't buy happiness, who'd have thunk it? There's also relative wealth effects too. You might be on $4K in Tongo - and living the relatively good life. But $16K in Zealand, when the average is $27K means you are the bottom of the pile and living a life of quiet desperation wondering how you climb out of the hole in an alien land. Plus all of the folks back home don't believe it (even if you dared tell them it was a massive mistake, and think you are living it large on untold wealth - and want their share sent to them.

Add to that the normal hand grenades that life tosses your way eg relationship break up, serious illness - and it can start to look very lonely indeed.

I suspect migrants fleeing persecution are happier on the whole.

Interesting point on the competition front. Most migrants, even very recent ones, I've met reckon immigration is too high. Prime recruiting ground for UKIP and BNP I'd have thought.