A large amount of research is dedicated to the measurement of immigration trends and integration processes, but comparative studies of the components of immigrants’ well-being are rare. This paper investigates the link between the length of stay and the subjective well-being (SWB) of immigrants. A step-by-step regression method is used to understand interactions between different individual- and macro-level factors in the life satisfaction of immigrants. The results of the European Social Survey (ESS) show that the effect of length of stay on SWB is mitigated by numerous individual- and country-level variables. After all background variables are considered, newly arrived immigrants and those who have been in the new country for more than 20 years had a similar life satisfaction to that of the local-born population. Immigrants with 10 to 20 years’ experience in the country seem to have lower life satisfaction than the local-born population. The SWB of different immigrant groups is shaped by cultural background, economic coping, number of social contacts, perception of discrimination, and democracy. These factors influence the life satisfaction of migrants with different lengths of stay differently. The most vulnerable immigrant groups in Europe are those from Africa region.

The three Baltic countries experienced the most rapid population decline throughout the 1990s and 2000s in Europe. The resulting critical demographic situation motivated the governments of the Baltic states to pay more political attention to family policy issues than in the rest of Europe. The aim of the paper is to analyze the development of family policy in Baltic countries and factors that influenced it during the 2009 economic crisis. Also, the outcomes in terms of child poverty and fertility are highlighted. Results show that the economic resources and fertility level had an essential impact on family policy in the Baltic states. Economic support to families, in turn, directly alleviate the poverty level of families and indirectly influence fertility.

This chapter analyses the social protection system in Estonia mainly from the immigration viewpoint. Perhaps because of low immigration rates in recent decades, immigration and emigration issues are seldom explicitly regulated in the Estonian legal system. Our findings indicate that social security rights are based mostly on legal resident status in Estonia, although EU foreign residents sometimes benefit from some better conditions, mainly in terms of taking into account employment records in other EU countries. Missing waiting periods for entitlement to social benefits guarantee that newly arrived immigrants have similar rights with long-term residents.

Regional disparities are one of the sources of social inequality. The empirical study is based on theoretical concept of components of immigration-related ethnic conflicts. The chapter analyses immigration-related conflict risks sources. These conflicts manifest as tensions arising from the interaction between newcomers, often hailing from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and the established population. This study provides insights into immigration-related ethnic conflict risk levels across 75 Estonian municipalities, offering an understanding of regional risk factors and regional distribution of risks. Using the risk components, we quantify immigration-related conflict risk and use hierarchical cluster analysis to categorize municipalities into distinct types by interaction of conflict components. The empirical analyses reveal segregation of immigration-related ethnic conflict risk; however, this risk varies significantly among different municipality groups and is to a certain extent related with immigration. Three different groups of municipalities can be distinguished in Estonia. A total of 30% of all municipalities have elevated risk levels. In these municipalities, the readiness for conflict is higher than linear interaction with migration rates would predict. We conclude that immigration-related ethnic conflicts are dynamic phenomena shaped by the interplay of immigration processes and pre-existing ethnic divisions within societies.