Social Mobility and Life Satisfaction across European Countries: A Compositional Perspective on Dissociative Consequences of Social Mobility

A classic claim in social mobility effects research holds that social mobility is a disruptive and harmful experience. It has been suggested that the experience of social mobility is less disruptive when mobility at the national level is high, because this increases the social and cultural heterogeneity of social classes, which may facilitate the adaptation to the social class of destination. In this article we empirically test the tenability of this claim for social class mobility and life satisfaction. Using Diagonal Reference Models on data for 44 European countries from the 2008 European Values Study, we find evidence for processes of acculturation: the life satisfaction of socially mobile individuals is associated with the class of origin and destination. There is no evidence for effects of social mobility over and above those of social class position of origin and destination. Interestingly, in contrast to suggestions from the literature, national upward or downward mobility rates do not moderate the effect of social mobility on life satisfaction. This study suggests that class heterogeneity does not influence the difficulty of the adaptation to the social class of destination.