Journal
JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES
Volume 39, Issue 10, Pages 1535-1553Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2013.833685
Keywords
Ethnic and Symbolic Boundaries; Ethnicity; Life Satisfaction; Happiness; Luxembourg; Sweden
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This study contributes to the growing literature on social and ethnic boundaries by tracing the impact of symbolic language boundaries in 20 European countries. Using data from the 2002-03 wave of the European Social Survey, we show that the language boundaries drawn in different host societies affect the subjective well-being of first- and second-generation immigrants. Confirming theoretical expectations, we find that symbolic boundaries only influence those individuals with limited proficiency in the majority language. Moreover, applying a distinction from theories of ethnic boundary-making, we show that it is primarily the contestedness of language boundaries within a society, rather than their strength, that influences subjective well-being. This finding provides indirect evidence for a major hypothesis: that disagreement over the social location of ethnic boundaries will make them politically salient; this, in turn, affects the well-being of individuals whose status is at stake.
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