Happiness and marginalization rates for internal Mexican migrants and the native-born population in Baja California, Mexico

•Internal migration is an important phenomenon in Baja California's northern border cities.•Native-born individuals are slightly happier than migrants.•Marginalization did not influence native-born or migrant happiness levels.•Place was an important component to an individual's level of happiness.

More than 3.3 million people were internal migrants in Mexico in 2010 (INEGI, 2011a). This internal migration has played an important role in the growth and expansion of cities in Mexico, particularly in the country's northern border region. Growth in the municipalities has been driven by neoliberal economic policies and factors of globalization. This paper considers the level of happiness and marginalization for those who were born in and those who migrated to the two largest municipalities in Baja California, Mexicali and Tijuana. This study finds that there are not many differences between the native-born and migrants’ expressed level of happiness and marginalization level but there are differences in the municipalities. From these findings, the importance of place, its nature as well as manmade characteristics, and people are more important factors than marginalization or place of birth to finding happiness.