International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume 15, Issue 5, 2018

Will happiness improve the psychological integration of migrant workers? (Article) (Open Access)

Li T.-C. , Chu C.-C.* , Meng F.-C. , Li Q. , Mo D. , Li B. , Tsai S.-B.
  • a College of Economics and Management, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
  • b Department of Finance, Business School, Shantou University, Shantou, 515063, China, Research Institute for Guangdong-Taiwan Business Cooperation, Shantou University, Shantou, 515063, China
  • c College of Economics and Management, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
  • d College of Economics and Management, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
  • e School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, College of Business, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia
  • f Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia
  • g Zhongshan Institute, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Guangzhou, 528400, China, Research Center for Environment and Sustainable Development of China Civil Aviation, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin, 300300, China

Abstract

Happiness is a major factor that influences people’s perceptions and behavior. Two-stage least squares regression was applied to investigate the effect of happiness on the psychological integration of migrant workers in China. The data for a total of 1625 individuals were obtained from the 2014 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS). This study describes happiness from three main aspects: happiness, life satisfaction, and economic satisfaction. The psychological integration includes two dimensions of settlement willingness, and trust level; these have gone through dimension-reduced processing by using the weighted average method. The empirical evidence shows, first, that happiness has a significantly positive effect on the psychological integration of migrant workers and second, that the sense of life satisfaction in particular plays a more significant role. The acceleration of the social and political integration in migrant workers will enhance their psychological integration. Additionally, social, cultural and economic integration is found to influence migrant workers’ psychological integration by promoting happiness. Happiness between different generations of migrant workers was found to have a noticeably positive impact on their psychological integration; however, the happiness of the younger migrant workers was more perceivable than that of the other generations. Preferential policies should therefore be provided to improve the happiness of migrant workers. © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Author Keywords

Migrant workers Psychological integration Psychological health Happiness

Index Keywords

China mental health human acceleration Happiness Surveys and Questionnaires migrant worker Humans psychology Trust life satisfaction male female questionnaire Article major clinical study adult migration human experiment psychological well-being Transients and Migrants employment Personal Satisfaction satisfaction
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85046670705&doi=10.3390%2fijerph15050900&partnerID=40&md5=f703cbb971c3c2dcb89dd65be70b4f56
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph15050900
ISSN: 16617827
Cited by: 2
Original Language: English