Life Satisfaction Among Ethnic Minorities in Europe

Although life satisfaction (LS) of ethnic minorities can be significantly undermined by several psychological and material hardships, relatively few studies have examined this issue across Europe. The aim of the present study is to examine the impact of belonging to an ethnic minority group on LS, using data from the sixth wave of the European Social Survey (ESS6), carried out in 2012 in 29 countries (N = 54,540). About 6.7% of all the participants in the ESS6 considered themselves belonging to an ethnic minority group. Our findings show that LS is lower for the ethnic minorities than for the majority not only in the pooled ESS6 sample but also in 19 European countries, most notably in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic. Multilevel analysis indicated that the negative impact of ethnic minority status on LS tended to be enhanced in ex-Communist countries as well as in countries with higher ethnic diversity. The findings of this study show clearly that policy makers of several European countries should focus on increasing social justice and solidarity, and providing ethnic minorities real opportunities to feel more integrated into society.