Migration and aspirations – are migrants trapped on a hedonic treadmill?

Table 1 Past migrants and non-migrants: status quo well-being and futureaspirations

		2000			2007
		Rural	Urban	Δ	Rural	Urban	Δ
Current subjective well-being	Non-migrant	2.80 [10862]	2.98 [10178]	0.19** (0.01)	2.76 [9416]	2.92 [9450]	0.16** (0.01)
	Migrant	2.81 [1919]	3.00 [2385]	0.20** (0.02)	2.76 [1887]	2.96 [3287]	0.21** (0.02)
	∆	0.01 (0.02)	0.02 (0.02)		0.00 (0.02)	0.05* (0.02)
Aspiration gap	Non-migrant	0.27 [10520]	0.33 [9939]	0.05** (0.01)	0.55 [8991]	0.56 [8907]	0.01 (0.01)
	Migrant	0.36 [1841]	0.39 [2325]	0.04 (0.02)	0.64 [1762]	0.66 [3069]	0.02 (0.01)
	∆	0.08** (0.01)	0.06** (0.01)		0.09** (0.01)	0.10** (0.01)

Notes: No of observations in brackets, standard errors in parentheses. **(*) significant at 0.1 % (1 %) level. In 2000, survey respondentswere asked about their aspirations in the next year, whereas in the 2007survey, respondents were asked about aspirations of well-being in a fiveyear horizon. The respondents were asked to imagine a six-step ladder withthe poorest (richest) people on the first (sixth) step, and to state theircurrent as well as their expected future position.