Abstract
This chapter explores the manifold aspects and predictors of well-being among immigrant youth in Spain. The study presented aimed to examine the relationship between the perceived discrimination of immigrant young adults, ethnicity, and individual and collective coping strategies as factors related to their hedonic, psychological, and social well-being. Participants were 232 immigrants (aged 18-24) from Bolivia, Colombia, Morocco, Romania, and Sub-Saharan African countries. Coping strategies were found to mitigate detrimental effects of perceived discrimination on immigrants’ psychological functioning. However, not all the identity management mechanisms serve as a buffer for well-being across distinct ethnicities. Colombians benefit from both individual- and group-level favourable social comparisons whereas Romanians intend to restore or maintain their well-being through personal and group mobilization. African (especially Moroccan) immigrants suffer most the consequences of the lack of coping resources on their psychological functioning. Implications and suggestions for future policy and research with these immigrant groups are discussed.
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Notes
- 1.
Significant differences were found by country of origin for the distribution by gender, income, education, employment, marital and legal status, and religion, as well by mean length of residence.
- 2.
According to official statistics, in the Basque Country autonomous region, 91 % of the foreign-born population were registered, and had access to public health services, with a between-country variation: from 97 % for Colombians to 86 % for sub-Saharan Africans. A total of 23 % were undocumented or living in Spain without a residence permit (Basque Observatory of Immigration 2009).
- 3.
The fieldwork was carried out by a specialist company that meets Spain’s legal requirements on data protection. The data were collected by a team of trained interviewers who were provided with detailed fieldwork instructions. Interviews were conducted in Spanish, given that the vast majority of the other immigrant groups in Spain are able to speak and understand it. However, many of the interviewers were bilingual (Spanish- and English- or French-speaking), and they were all backed up with English and French versions of the questionnaire.
- 4.
In Bobowik et al.’s (2012) study, confirmatory factor analyses found nine identity management strategies. In the present chapter, we selected four latent factors that are the most representative, as well as presenting most variability between groups and the best predictive validity.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the following Research Grants: MICINN (PSI2008-02689/PSIC), GIC07/113-IT-255-07, as well as by a Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation Predoctoral Fellowship Program Grant awarded to Magdalena Bobowik: AP2008-01980.
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Appendix 1
Appendix 1
Individual Mobility and Self-Regulation
I make an effort to overcome the difficulties I face as an immigrant.
I strive to demonstrate that I am better than people from here in my working life (or whatever else it is that you do).
I try not to let it get to me on an emotional level when immigrants are maltreated.
I try to steer clear of people who think badly of immigrants.
I bury myself in my studies or work so as not to have to think about my situation, and I act as if everything were okay.
Temporal and Intragroup Comparisons
Now I am enjoying the experiences of daily life more than before and I am trying to make the most of them.
My own personal situation is rather better than the situation of most immigrants from my country.
When I think of what my plans and prospects used to be, my situation is better than I expected then.
Compared with the past, my situation is better.
Social Competition
We immigrants ought to have the same services and rights as people from here.
We immigrants from my country can band together to fight for our rights and be like people from here.
I have faith that, in time, justice will be done and prejudice toward us will become a thing of the past.
Cognitive Creativity: New Group of Comparison
There are other groups that are seen in a worse light here than people from my country.
Basques and the Spaniards treat people from my country more kindly than they treat other immigrants.
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Bobowik, M., Basabe, N., Páez, D. (2014). Identity Management Strategies, Perceived Discrimination, and Well-Being Among Young Immigrants in Spain. In: Dimitrova, R., Bender, M., van de Vijver, F. (eds) Global Perspectives on Well-Being in Immigrant Families. Advances in Immigrant Family Research, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9129-3_12
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