Guest editor: Graciela Tonon, Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, Universidad de Palermo, Argentina

Guest editor: David Bartram, University of Leicester (UK)

JSR&P invites original paper submissions for a special issue on Migration and Happiness, to bring together papers exploring the intersection of two topics that feature very prominently in public discourse and debates.

Happiness – long a topic of interdisciplinary scholarly efforts among social scientists – has now become a matter of significant interest for public policy-makers as well.  Senior figures in the British government, for example, convene regular meetings of a “Whitehall Well-Being Working Group” to consider happiness dimensions of public policy, and French president Nikolas Sarkozy in 2009 commissioned a report on happiness in France from two well-known economists.

Research on happiness (and the closely related topic of life satisfaction) is particularly innovative in its rejection of a core premise of modern economics: “revealed preferences”.  Instead of assuming that people are better off in “objective” ways e.g. for having higher incomes – and that we can know this via observation of choices and behaviour – happiness studies focuses on the subjective dimension of well-being.  In place of economists’ axioms regarding utility, then, happiness researchers address an empirical question: what are the choices, actions and characteristics that bring happiness? 

There is significant scope for revisiting a number of core issues in research on migration via consideration rooted in a happiness studies perspective.  Examples of questions might include:

• Under what conditions do immigrants of various types end up achieving higher levels of happiness?
• In particular, does greater integration (however conceived) lead to greater happiness?
• Do certain types of government/policy approaches regarding immigrants lead to greater happiness, and do other approaches inhibit happiness?
• What are the happiness consequences of immigration for natives?  Some researchers (as well as politicians and activists) worry particularly about the challenge to national identity believed to follow from immigration; does that challenge find expression in lower happiness among natives?
• To what extent is it legitimate to consider happiness consequences (both for immigrants and for natives) in ethical discussions about migration policies?  For example, if it were established that immigration leads to decreased happiness among natives, what consideration (if any) ought to be given to a finding of that sort in determination of immigration control/management policies?  Observers are divided as to the legitimacy of taking economic consequences for natives into account in ethical discussions of this sort – does shifting the focus to happiness consequences help resolve this type of dispute?
• What are the methodological challenges that arise in researching happiness in relation to migration, and how might those challenges be addressed?
• Again on methodological issues – are there any special measurement issues that arise in regard to immigrants?  Happiness researchers have given extensive consideration to cross-cultural issues regarding survey questions.  What additional considerations might come into play for those who themselves move across cultures?

This list is merely indicative and other ways of making the connection are welcome.

All submissions will be peer reviewed.  For guidelines on manuscript preparation and submission, please visit the journal website.  Please address any inquiries to David Bartram at d.bartram@le.ac.uk.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 31 August 2011

Program evaluation has become a standard practice in the design and implementation of public policy as an outcome of continuing pressures toward effectiveness, efficiency and accountability in public management. Besides the evident improvements entailed by these developments in the area of policy implementation the benefits of these concerns are manifolds: first, there are large and very valuable amounts of empirical evidence that can be used in assessing competing hypotheses regarding phenomena involved in the addressed programs; second, policies gain in quality through evidence based design; and last but not least, an entire area o methodological and disciplinary interrogation is flourishing.

Our special JSR&P issue endeavors to take advantage of this increasing and largely unused body of knowledge by inviting theoretical, methodological and, evidently, empirical articles coming from the area of program evaluation especially from the field of social policy. Research or practice notes and book reviews are also welcome by the editors.

This call for paper is open until April 20, 2011. All submissions will be double peer reviewed.  For guidelines on manuscript preparation and submission, please visit the journal website.  Please address any inquiries to the journal’s email address office@jsrp.ro or to Adrian Hatos at ahatos@gmail.com.