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Immigrants’ Sense of Belonging to the Host Country: The Role of Life Satisfaction, Language Proficiency, and Religious Motives

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Abstract

This paper focuses on a significant concept in migration studies: immigrants’ sense of belonging to the host society. Drawing upon the literature of immigration and subjective well-being, we proposed a model in which life satisfaction is a major predictor of immigrants’ sense of belonging, and is explained by background variables including religious affiliation, religious motivation, native language proficiency and ethnic segregation. The study was based on a survey of two groups of highly skilled migrants in Israel; immigrants from France and the Former Soviet Union who moved to Israel in the last two decades. The findings suggest that, as expected, life satisfaction had a significant influence on immigrants’ sense of belonging and served as a mediator variable in the model. Whereas ethnic segregation was not found to be a significant parameter in the model, religious motivation and Hebrew language proficiency were found to be prominent. In light of the literature, we also discuss the importance of religious motivations to immigrants’ subjective well-being, identity, and sense of belonging.

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Notes

  1. Under the Law of Return, any immigrant to Israel who has at least one Jewish grandparent is entitled to citizenship. This definition is not congruent with the religious definition, which holds that a Jew is anyone whose mother is a Jew.

  2. The measurement of life satisfaction by the answer to a single global question was recently discussed by Kahneman and Krueger (2006). They cite surveys (e.g., American General Social Survey, GSS) using this form of question and emphasize that respondents had little trouble answering it. Based on a survey conducted in Texas, they report that the correlation obtained for life satisfaction scores (using a single question) after 2 weeks (test re-test reliability) was 0.59 (page 7). As mentioned by Kahneman and Krueger (2006), using an index comprised of more variables would be preferable, but only if the questions are defined in general terms (as specified in my introduction, page 3). In our survey there are other variables related to satisfaction, but concerning specific issues (such as satisfaction at work, satisfaction from income). The correlation between these variables and general life satisfaction was low.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Institute for Immigration and Social Integration at Ruppin Academic Center and by AMI Association.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration and the Institute for Immigration and Social Integration, Ruppin Academic Center, 4025000, Emek Hefer, Israel

    Karin Amit

  2. The Department of Engineering, Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer, Israel

    Shirly Bar-Lev

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  1. Karin Amit
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Correspondence to Karin Amit.

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Amit, K., Bar-Lev, S. Immigrants’ Sense of Belonging to the Host Country: The Role of Life Satisfaction, Language Proficiency, and Religious Motives. Soc Indic Res 124, 947–961 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-014-0823-3

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