Migrants’ well-being: Moving to a better life?

Better understanding the lives of migrants is key to ensuring both their well-being and their successful integration. This chapter builds on previous OECD work to explore the meaning and measurement of migrants’ well-being. On average, migrants experience greater poverty, lower levels of income and wealth, and more exposure to poor environmental and housing conditions relative to non-migrants. They also find it harder to access decent work: they are more likely to be overqualified for their jobs, experience more in-work poverty and work more atypical hours. While migrants tend to be less satisfied with their lives in OECD countries, in many cases they still report higher life satisfaction than the peers they left behind in their country of origin. Data on health, social connections, trust in government and attitudes towards migrants are also featured in the chapter. However, a number of important gaps in the evidence remain, and more accurate, timely and granular data on migrants’ well-being are needed.