A liberalizing effect of happiness? The impact of improvements and deteriorations in different dimensions of subjective well-being on concerns about immigration.

This article examines how subjective well-being (SWB)—specifically overall life satisfaction, income satisfaction, and housing satisfaction—relates to concerns about immigration in Germany, using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) spanning 1999 to 2017. The study finds that individuals with higher average satisfaction levels express fewer concerns about immigration, and that decreases in satisfaction increase such concerns while increases reduce them, supporting a scapegoating mechanism rather than a V-curve hypothesis. Importantly, the impact of SWB on immigration concerns persists beyond objective economic and social factors, and higher educational attainment buffers individuals against increased concerns following declines in SWB. These findings suggest that policies aimed at improving subjective well-being and addressing housing satisfaction may help reduce anti-immigration sentiments and foster societal integration.