Out of Sight, out of Mind? Frequency of Emigrants’ Contact with Friends in Germany and its Impact on Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

Migration implies both benefits and costs. The latter include a possible breakdown of social networks, and thus a loss of social capital. Although there is some literature on the evolution of family networks after migration, not as much is known about friendship. This article assesses the quality of friendships between German emigrants and their friends who stayed in Germany. In particular, it asks three research questions: (a) How does the quality of relationships with friends in Germany differ from the quality of other relationships after migration? (b) How is friendship quality after migration related to socio-demographic or socio-economic factors? And (c) is there a link between friendship quality and the subjective well-being of emigrants? Results indicate that friendship quality measured as frequency of contact with friends falls in the middle range of contact frequency, as emigrants typically have more contact with partners and children, but less contact with some other relatives, compared to close friends. Furthermore, several determinants of contact frequency (e.g. gender, age, length of stay and household constellation) can be identified and correlations with various aspects of subjective well-being were found.

International migration and its short‐term effect on partnership stability

“…Thereby, having strong and supportive social networks is potentially beneficial to partnership stability. Migration, however, increases the distance between social network members, which may decrease both contact (Bordone, 2009; Hank, 2007; Mansfeld, 2021) and support (McNulty, 2015; Mulder & van der Meer, 2009). This distance from social networks may increase marital stress (McNulty, 2012) and, consequently, decrease partnership stability (Muszynska & Kulu, 2007).…”