Akademik Məlumat İdarəetmə Sistemi
ECONOMICS & SOCIOLOGY, vol.14, no.3, pp.127-145, 2014 (ESCI)
Illegal international emigration has been one of the biggest challenges during the last decade. Intention to emigrate is a step before making an emigration decision and releasing the aspirations. The issue is crucial for both sending and receiving country, depending on the immigrant's life satisfaction whether it is a "happiness" or an "unhappiness" move. The study aims to investigate the impact of life (dis)satisfaction on intention to emigrate from the Muslim-majority society - Azerbaijan by using the representative survey data of 1317 respondents (n(male)=718, n(female)=599, Mean(age)=32.62, SDage=11.75) and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Robust Least Squares and Ordered Logit estimation methods. Results altogether support the "unhappiness move" hypothesis. Emigration intention in Azerbaijan is very high among dissatisfied people, especially among the youth and males. Intention to emigrate decreases in response to positive change in self reported happiness and age increase. Considering its utmost importance, the Azerbaijani government should implement policies targeted at enhancing citizens' life satisfaction, particularly among the youth. Research findings are also highly useful for the potential emigrant receiving countries to design the migration policy.