I am german and polish, but I like to relate more to my polish side, so I found an article about Polish migration that compared the happiness of those who migrated and those who stayed where they were. When people leave their home permanently, it is often for a better life, but is that what they are getting? Thing that is often looked at to mean more happiness and a better life, is money, health, social status, etc. There was a study showing that most people who migrated in the Eastern European countries were happier, with the exception those who migrated from Poland who were actually less happy than those who stayed. This article goes on to explain how the controlled experiment worked, the results, and the conclusions before continuing into discussions about the topic.
I found it interesting the results were so apparent that the others did feel happier, but the Polish migrants were basically unaffected. I was a bit confused by what exactly may be effecting them this way, they had charts showing “determinants of happiness” and how it effected them, but they were harder for me to understand. I also wonder how true this is for everyone and who exactly they talked to for the research. Especially after reading a book like Americanah where it was obvious the migrants in that book were not happy. This article also has no strong emotional words to sway perspective and opinions it was instead straight facts and evidence which was nice.
Bartram, David. “Happiness and ‘Economic Migration’: A Comparison of Eastern European Migrants and Stayers.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 24 June 2013, academic.oup.com/migration/article/1/2/156/991931?searchresult=1.