The Good and the Bad: Do Immigrants’ Positive and Negative Evaluations of Life After Migration Go Hand in Hand?

Research on migration and integration has informed us about the systemic inequalities and disadvantages that migrants face in the residence country. Less is known about migrants’ positive experiences, and whether these co-exist with negative experiences. This study’s contribution lies in exploring to what extent positive and negative evaluations go hand in hand and among whom in what way. By coding and analysing open-ended questions of the New Immigrants Survey, we explore this among 955 immigrants from Bulgaria, Poland, Spain and Turkey who have been in the Netherlands for around 5 years. Results illustrate that these migrants most often positively evaluate matters in the economic domain, whereas the domain that is most often negatively evaluated concerns (being apart from) family. Which positive and negative evaluations are mentioned simultaneously differs among migrants, where migrants from Spain more often combine a negative evaluation of the Dutch whether with a positive evaluation of the Dutch being friendly. Migrants with a temporary intention to stay are more likely to combine a positive evaluation of the economic domain with negative experiences in the integration domain. This study hereby illustrates that the current emphasis in migration research on “the bad” overlooks positive matters that migrants experience simultaneously.