The wellbeing gap between immigrants and natives: the role of social integration

Existing research has examined immigrants' subjective wellbeing and economic integration but less is known about whether multiple dimensions of social integration jointly account for differences in subjective wellbeing between immigrants and natives in the UK. This paper examines whether British identity, community involvement, neighborhood attachment and UK-based social networks help explain this disparity.

The analysis uses waves 3 and 6 of the UK Household Longitudinal Study and estimates correlated random effects models for two outcomes: life satisfaction and GHQ-based mental health. The models first estimate the immigrant-native gap, then add demographic characteristics and economic integration controls, before introducing the selected social integration measures.

Immigrants report lower life satisfaction and mental health than natives, and these differences remain after demographic and economic integration controls are included. Adding social integration measures substantially reduces the remaining disparity. British identity, neighborhood attachment and UK-based social networks have the clearest explanatory relevance, while community involvement plays a more limited role.

The findings suggest that differences in subjective wellbeing between immigrants and natives in the UK are associated not only with economic integration, but also with social connection, local embeddedness and subjective belonging. Integration should therefore be understood as a multidimensional process, although the results are associational and should not be interpreted causally.