The World Happiness Report 2018, released in March, showed that Australia was ranked the 10th happiest country in the world out of the 156 considered in its study.
The study also found that most of the happiest countries in the world have a higher proportion of migrants.
This is significant for Australia because it has one of the highest proportions of migrants for any country in the world. Around 50 percent of its citizens were either born in foreign countries or had one or both of their parents born abroad.
Moreover, since it is also indicated that migrants to certain countries are happier than others, people who have relocated to Australia, the UK and New Zealand are among the most contented migrants.
According to researchers, immigration is beneficial to countries where migrants are received well and are able to integrate better.
The report is quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald as saying that countries, which have a more accommodating attitude towards migrants, benefit as it is a win-win situation for both its original residents and newcomers.
This is where Australia is said to be doing very well. Gallup’s new Migrant Acceptance Index, which evaluates the response of the general public to migrants from all over the world, found that Australia is the world’s seventh most welcoming country out of 140 countries figuring in this survey. It also showed that in the most immigrant-friendly countries new migrants as well older migrants are more optimistic than their counterparts in the countries which are less welcoming.
It is said to be the first-time that the first time that the World Happiness Report in 2018 ranked countries as per the happiness of their migrants, besides that of the entire population.
It was found that the migrant population of Australia had ranked the sixth happiest in the world, exceeding its overall rank of 10 on the world’s happiness table.