180 Legal status regularization, satisfaction with life and gender. A longitudinal study of undocumented workers in Switzerland

Abstract OP 28: Mental Health 5, B304 (FCSH), September 4, 2025, 16:00 - 17:00 Background Undocumented migrants face numerous challenges, including the risk of denunciation, precarious working and living conditions and discrimination. All these factors have the potential to influence their satisfaction with life. While men and women can be differently affected by those issues, data showing their contrasted influence on life satisfaction among female and male undocumented migrants are scarce. Even less is known about what happens once they can be regularized. Aim This presentation addresses the evolution of life satisfaction among undocumented migrants over time, taking into account changes in their residence status and the role of gender stratification. Methods It is based on panel data collected over 4 waves (n = 468 at wave 1) in Geneva, Switzerland, along an exceptional regularization policy. Results Participants comprised two thirds of women, most working in the domestic work sector, and had spent on average 12 years in Geneva. With fixed and random effects models, we assess how economic and housing conditions, health and transnational ties, as well as opportunities for regularization influence men and women’s well-being in specific ways. Over the course of the study, women consistently reported greater satisfaction with life than men despite being exposed to poorer life conditions. Conclusion Findings suggest that for women, the balance of the costs and benefits of migration is overall more favorable than for men amidst the multiple contradictory influences shaping their quality of life. Regularization of residence status positively affected men’s satisfaction with life, representing a second honeymoon in their migration trajectories. The absence of such a direct effect among women might reflect that for them obtaining a residence permit has less immediate benefits with respect to income, working and housing conditions.