On migrants
'You are not going to amuse yourself', barriers to achieving wellbeing through international migration: the case of Peruvian immigrants in London and Madrid
Well being analysis of migrants from Latin America and Caribbean to the EU
Authors:
K. Wright-Revolledo
Publisher:
International NGO Training and Research Centre , 2007
International migration from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to the EU is important but has received relatively little attention and needs to be better understood. This paper provides a wellbeing analysis of international migration by inductively analysing perceived obstacles or blocks to achieving wellbeing amongst a sample of 99 Peruvian migrants based in London and Madrid. It explores how people construct their wellbeing in different cultural settings and adapt as they move between different societal contexts and systems of meaning.
The author outlines how adopting a wellbeing perspective has considerable advantages for understanding the phenomenon of international migration. It also affirms key elements in our understanding of wellbeing through post hoc identification of four major obstacles to improved wellbeing: loss of autonomy, enjoyment, relatedness and social status. Although there are clearly advantages of international migration in terms of resource acquisition, ability to send remittances and enhanced status on return that may be obtained from living in Europe. This paper suggests that such gains are counter-balanced by deeper losses and multiple obstacles in other domains of wellbeing. Additional points include:
- there are tradeoffs between material and other psycho-social aspects of wellbeing with the latter remaining largely unfulfilled through the strategy of international migration
- structural issues undermining wellbeing outcomes need to be addressed through incorporating the wellbeing concept into policy on international migration
- European governments are truly to accept international labour and migration of peoples as a reality, the conditions necessary for achieving wellbeing also need to be created in the host country
- structural constraints can only be addressed through educating the dominant majority and changing social attitudes to immigrants to improve their social treatment as they begin to form part of a significant minority.
