Effects of spatial mobility on subjective quality of life

• Applicants: Dr. Nicolai Netz; Dr. Nico Stawarz
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 506027897

In modern societies, individual life courses are characterised by a high degree of spatial mobility. From a societal perspective, spatial mobility is crucial for the functioning of the educational system and the labour market. From an individual perspective, spatial mobility is a strategy to improve, for instance, the work and living situation. In consequence, spatial mobility can significantly affect the individual life situation and, thus, social inequalities in society. Given the social and individual importance of spatial mobility, existing research has extensively analysed the consequences of spatial mobility for individual life courses and for the generation of societal inequalities. However, it has mainly focused on work-related outcomes (e.g. wages and the occupational position). As human behaviour ultimately aims to improve one’s quality of life, the focus of previous studies is too limited. Accordingly, we consider it necessary to broadly introduce aspects of subjective quality of life into migration research. This focus allows us to give answers to the questions how individuals cope with spatial mobility and how quality of life evolves in an increasingly mobile society.Against this background, our project aims to comprehensively examine the effects of societally highly relevant, yet so far hardly examined forms of spatial mobility (internal and international educational and labour market mobility) on subjective quality of life. We define subjective quality of life as a multidimensional construct, which comprises health-related quality of life (HRQOL, subjective physical and mental health) and subjective well-being (SWB, general life satisfaction). We aim to reach our project goals by systematically applying a life course perspective to our outcome of interest. In detail, we aim to expand existing theoretical models and empirical knowledge by analysing societally relevant but understudied populations (apprentices, students, and different groups of internationally mobile employees). Besides, we investigate the heterogeneity of the relationship between spatial mobility and subjective quality of life by focusing on partnership dynamics as well as the parental and individual levels of education. We ensure the robustness and generalisability of our results by using representative longitudinal data sets (SOEP, GERPS, NEPS, DZHW PhD Panel, and NACAPS) and advanced methods of causal analysis.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants