Subjective Well-Being and International Migration: What Kinds of People Suit Migration?

International migration, often motivated by the striving for a better life, improves the subjective well-being of only a subset of immigrants. Although it is well-researched how immigrants can make the most out of migration in the host country, little is known about what kinds of immigrants suit migration in the first place. Therefore, this article explores pre-migration personal characteristics of immigrants to determine what kinds of immigrants actually have the potential to derive greater happiness from migration. Data from the recently launched M(igration)-sample of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) is used for this purpose.