This study aimed to find out how happy the ex‐East Timor refugees who chose to become Indonesians after more than 20 years of the Timor Leste referendum were. Descriptive statistics and thematic content analysis were employed for investigating the responsible factors for their happiness level. An open survey method and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) scale distribution were used in this study with 173 Indonesians who participated in the 1999 Timor Leste referendum. The results show that on a scale of 1 to 6 participants are in the second or third lowest levels of happiness. Five main factors determine the happiness of the refugees, including economic condition, recognition and appreciation from the Indonesian government, security, family, and education access. These research findings offer a deeper understanding of the ex‐refugee studies to obtain psychological well‐being rights in their country of choice.