A Study on migrated Students and their Well - being using Amartya Sens Functioning Multidimentional Aproach

Integrated Intelligent Research (IIR) International Journal of Web Technology
Volume: 03 Issue: 02 December 2014 Page No.38-43
ISSN: 2278-2389
38
A Study on migrated Students and their Well –
being using Amartya Sens Functioning
Multidimentional Aproach
Raj Kumar, T.Pathinathan,
Department of Mathematics, Loyola College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Abstract-This paper deals with the multidimensional analysis
of well-being from the theoretical point of views suggested by
Dr. Amartya Sen. Sens Functioning Multidimensional
Approach is broadly recognized as one of the most satisfying
approaches to well-being. The Capability approach and the
Functioning approach of Sen have found relatively many
pragmatic applications mainly for its strong informational and
methodological requirements. An attempt has been made to
realize a multidimensional assessment of Sens concept of well-
being with the use of the Fuzzy Set theory. The methodology is
applied to the evaluative space of Functionings, with an
experimental application to migrated students studying in
Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
Keywords-Capability,approach,Functionings,Multidimensional
analysis of well-being, Fuzzy Set.
I. INTRODUCTION
India is a country having within itself a multi-cultural and
multi-ethnic society. ‘Unity in Diversity’ is the jargon that is
repeated often on stage. Migrated Students, all over the world,
face certain difficulties and challenges yet there are certain
specific regional flavors to their new demands. The issue
analyzed through this paper is on the well-being of migrated
students living mainly in Chennai city. A study has been
conducted with college students migrated from Tibet, South
Africa, Bangaladesh, Sri Lanka, East Timor, Bihar, Jharkhand,
Udisha, West Bengal, Assam, Chhatisgarh, Andaman-Nikobar,
Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Delhi and
Uthrapradesh.
Majority of the migrated students think of themselves or feel
treated by others as ‘different’. Why do the majority of
migrated students made to think or feel ‘different’? Spoken
language, physical appearance, dress habits, food habits,
cultural traits and level of social security and economic
independence are some of the attributes that differentiates
migrated students from other students.
II. THE WELL-BEING CONCEPT
The well-being is defined in association with one’s current
standard of life and it is not an easy concept to express it in
clear cut terms and definitions. Initially it has been measured
through the income per capita, but this showed itself to be
insufficient to explain such a complex concept. The capability
approach, introduced by A. Sen, looks at freedom, human
rights and defines human well-being in terms of functioning
and capabilities, where functioning are achievements of human
well-being and capabilities the ability to achieve them.
Well-being refers to being able to live a long, healthy and
educated lifestyle that is locked within a decent social security
system that one is allowed to and capable to use. A vast variety
of measurements, such as average life expectancy, school
enrollment and literacy rates for example, can be used in this
discussion. However, the question of how to measure the
happiness of student or children is not easily resolved. The
dimensions depend on the availability of data and the
distinction between doing well and being well has to be
emphasized throughout the research. The following dimensions
of well-being were established by UNICEF to examine “child
well-being”
 Material well-being
 Health and Safety
 Educational well-being
 Relationships
 Behaviors and Risks
 Subjective well-being
Those are neat categories, but it is not always clear whether a
particular characteristic is a problem or only correlated with
one. Thus, very different outcomes can be found throughout
the report. Well-being can be explained as the following
function:
Well-being of migrant children= f (H, B, C, D) where H is the
vector of human capital variables, for example age, health care
access, educational opportunities,B stands for demographic and
economic characteristics such as gender and race. C can be the
vector of the country of origin and D captures the effects that
are particular to immigrant groups.
A. Social Responsibility as well-being
a) Some quotes on Social responsibility
"Social responsibility-that is, a personal investment in the well-
being of others and of the planet-doesn't just happen. It takes
intention, attention, and time." -- Sheldon Berman, "Educating
for Social Responsibility," Educational Leadership, November
1990.
"Students can and should be given opportunities to take part in
the significant events in their world. As teachers, we can
create very powerful opportunities for our students, both in the
classroom and extending into the larger world….We can help
them understand processes of group decision making and the
political process. And, we can structure ways for them to

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participate in the empowering experience of acting to make a
real difference in the world." --ESR's Making History.Some
may question Berman's definition of social responsibility.
What constitutes "well-being"? Exactly who are the "others"?
Will the well-being of others be promoted by free trade
agreements? By immigration reform? Thus, Well-being means
different things to different people.
B. Sen’s Functioning Multidimensional Approach to Well-
being
Sen frequently uses the well-being of someone with ability of
someone who can achieve with a given amount of wealth,
depends on certain conditions, and any measure of inequality
has to take these “conversion factors” into account, focusing
on outcomes rather than means.
a) Sen’s Capability Theory
The capability approach was initially conceived in the 1980s
as an approach to welfare economics. In this approach,
Amartya Sen brought together a range of ideas that were
hitherto excluded from (or inadequately formulated in)
traditional approaches to the economics of welfare. The core
focus of the capability approach is on what individuals are
able to do.Capabilities refer to things a person can achieve or
could have achieved in life. The notion of capability is
essentially one of freedom. This theory helps us to be a part of
society that is having friends, freedom to pursue education,
freedom to pursue career, freedom to be mobile, freedom to
have job of one’s liking, ability to marry, ability to raise a
family, and ability to pursue spiritual goals. It would be useful
research to examine the extent of role of the capabilities in
predicting the well being of persons with migrants.
Interventions can also be designed to modify capabilities in
the lives of persons with migration. Initially Sen argued for
five components in assessing capability:
 The importance of real freedoms in the assessment of a
person's advantage
 Individual differences in the ability to transform resources
into valuable activities
 The multi-variate nature of activities giving rise to
happiness
 A balance of materialistic and non-materialistic factors in
evaluating human welfare
 Concern for the distribution of opportunities within society
Formulations of capability have two parts: functionings and
opportunity freedom – the substantive freedom to pursue
different functioning combinations. Ultimately, capabilities
denote a person’s opportunity and ability to generate valuable
outcomes, taking into account relevant personal characteristics
and external factors. The important part of this definition is the
“freedom to achieve”; the reason being, if freedom had only
instrumental value – valuable as a means to achieve an end –
and no intrinsic value – valuable in and of itself – to a person’s
well being, then the value of the capability set as a whole
would simply be defined by the value of a person’s actual
combination of functionings. Consequently, the capability set
outlined by this approach is not merely concerned with
achievements; rather, freedom of choice, in and of itself, is of
direct importance to a person’s quality of life. Take the
example of fasting as a functioning; there is an important
difference between fasting and starving because, in examining
a starving person’s achieved well being, it is critical to
consider whether the individual is personally choosing not to
eat or whether the person cannot eat because they lack the
means to acquire an adequate amount of food. In this example,
therefore, the functioning is starving but the capability to
obtain an adequate amount of food is the key element to be
considered in evaluating well being between individuals in the
two states. In sum, choosing a lifestyle is not exactly the same
as having that lifestyle no matter how chosen, and a person’s
well being does depend on how that lifestyle came to be. For
this reason, while the combination of a person’s functionings
represents their actual achievements, their capability set
represents their opportunity freedom – their freedom to choose
between alternative functioning combinations.
b) Functionings
Functionings refer to a mixture of “doings and beings” or the
various options or actions we perform in everyday life to
achieve things in life. Functioning ranges from achieving basic
things such as obtaining food and maintaining health, to more
complex tasks such as achieving inner peace or performing
leadership role in the community. Sen, in his theory promotes
an equality of capabilities and not necessarily an equality of
functionings that makes it interesting and different from many
other theorists some of the functioinings that can be measured
are: performing activities of daily living, obtaining food,
procuring clothing, living in own home, using transportation or
driving, having enough friends, having enough family
support,doing work, raising a family, pursuing a career, being
active in the neighborhood, being active in town, being active
in the state, being active nationally and internationally.In the
most basic sense, functionings consist of “beings and doings”.
As a result, living may be seen as a set of interrelated
functionings. Essentially, functionings are the states and
activities constitutive of a person’s being. Examples of
functionings can vary from elementary things, such as being
healthy, having a good job, and being safe, to more complex
states, such as being happy, having self-respect, and being
calm. Moreover, Amartya Sen contends that functionings are
crucial to an adequate understanding of the capability
approach; capability is conceptualized as a reflection of the
freedom to achieve valuable functionings. In other words,
functionings are the subjects of the capabilities referred to in
the approach: what we are capable, want to be capable, or
should be capable to be and/or do. Therefore, a person’s
chosen combination of functionings, what they are and do, is
part of their overall capability set – the functionings they were
able to do. Yet, functionings can also be conceptualized in a
way that signifies an individual’s capabilities. Eating, starving,
and fasting would all be considered functionings, but the
functioning of fasting differs significantly from that of starving
because fasting, unlike starving, involves a choice and is
understood as choosing to starve despite the presence of other
options. Consequently, an understanding of what constitutes
functionings is inherently tied together with an understanding
of capabilities, as defined by this approach.
c) Well-being
Well-being refers to one’s own welfare. Besides preference
fulfillment (which is commonly the only interpretation in

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utilitarian paradigms), well being also includes a feeling of
satisfaction and other features of a person’s life, such as their
attained state of health. In the context of migrated students this
construct can be measured by measuring the extent of ability to
get good education and services one wants, feeling of
satisfaction, and self-perceived healthy living. Thus, the real
measure of well-being had to be not the actual functioning
which a person exercised, but capability — the set of
functionings from which one can choose. So for example, the
university graduate who is serving tables has an unmistakable
advantage over their uneducated colleague, for they have a
choice, just as the adventurer who suffers exposure while
mountain climbing is obviously more advantaged than the
slum-dweller who freezes out of necessity.
III. A MULTIDIMENSIONAL ASSESSMENT OF
WELL-BEING
Well-being has been evaluated on the basis of a list of achieved
functionings instead of capabilities. Attention has been
confined to a set of five functionings - housing, health,
education and knowledge, social interactions and
psychological conditions - to which corresponds a large
spectrum of elementary indicators, mainly qualitative and on
an in ordinal scale, sometimes dichotomous. The functionings
selected and the correlated indicators are, therefore, the
following
1)Housing (safer living/campus security) is the result of two
main indicators: i) a crowding index, defined as the number of
rooms available for each student “corrected” by equivalence
coefficients to take into account the economies of scale ; ii) a
basic housing utilities measure that includes telephone, regular
water availability and heating.
2) Health conditions are described by the presence/absence of
chronic illnesses. Information available is related to a list of
fifteen chronic illnesses with different degrees of seriousness.
Three homogenous clusters have been determined:a first group
includes chronic illnesses with not very serious disability
consequences , the second group refers to severe chronic
illnesses that generates a partial disability, while the last group
includes the more serious or incurable illnesses.
3)Education and knowledge are measured by means of three
ordinal indicators: the higher educational attainment and two
variables that refer to personal knowledge in a wider sense that
is the number of books read during the last twelve months and
the frequency of reading newspapers during a week.
4) Social interactions are depicted by two subsets of indicators
that respectively refer to the social relationships during the
leisure time (frequency of contact and meeting with friends)
and to the participation in the social life.
5) Psychological conditions are described by a plurality of
indicators that express a subjective perception on one’s own
situation or a personal judgment about the level of satisfaction
regarding some relevant aspects of one’s own life. Nine
variables measured on ordinal scales have been included in our
analysis and re-arranged in five homogenous groups that refer
to i) economic conditions; ii) personal and social relations; iii)
health conditions; iv) working conditions ;v) leisure time.
However, the decision to consider also the subjective
dimension of well-being is justified by the fact that it doesn’t
substitute but just complements our assessment and permits us
to compare the results derived from the use of objective and
subjective evaluation criteria. At the same time, the concept of
“being well” in the sense of being happy, having self-respect,
and satisfying one’s own desires assumes an important role in
determining the personal well-being achievement(seeSen,
1992,1993) of course, these aspects are only partially reflected
in our available data.
IV. THE USE OF FUZZY SETS THEORY FOR A
FUZZY ASSESSMENT OF WELL-BEING
In the capability approach, well-being can be seen as a broad
and fuzzy concept that is intrinsically complex and vague in
the sense that it is not possible to express a clear cut boundaries
and definitions. Deprivation too is not an “all-or-nothing
condition” that identifies a certain class of people, but rather a
vague predicate that manifests itself in different degrees. When
we refer to a given functioning, such as healthy living or
education and knowledge, we can think that it could be fully
achieved by a person or not achieved at all, but more often it
will be only partially fulfilled.At the same time, when we
make an attempt to measure the well-being of the migrated
individual’s well-being, we presumably work with a wide set
of indicators that can assume quantitative or qualitative values
or linguistic attributes such as good, bad, low, high living and
so on.A useful tool for the treatment of “inexact knowledge”
and approximate reasoning is represented by the fuzzy set
theory. First introduced by Lotfi A. Zadeh (1965) and
extensively applied in many areas of research, this theory has
also recently gained considerable attention in inequality and
well-being analysis and in poverty measurement.
In a nutshell, fuzzy set theory substitutes the characteristic
function of a crisp set that traditionally assigns a value of either
1 or 0 to each element in the universal set (Discriminating
between members and non-members of the crisp set), with a
generalized characteristic function (called membership
function) which varies between 0 and 1. Larger values denote
higher degrees of membership. In formal terms, if X denotes a
universal set, then the membership function , by which a
fuzzy set A is usually defined, has the form
: X →[0, 1] [1]
Where [0, 1] is the interval of real numbers from 0 to 1. Hence,
(x) = 0 if the element x ∈ X does not belong to A, (x) =
1 if x completely belongs to A and 0 < (x) < 1 if x partially
belongs to A.
Let us assume that the subset A defines the position of each
individual according to the degree of achievement of a given
attainment or refers to one of the indicators considered for the
functioning assessment. When we consider quantitative
variables or qualitative variables measured on an ordinal scale
or expressed with linguistic attributes (as in the case of health
and physical condition or subjective opinions or perception on
one’s own conditions), intermediate values between 0 and 1
describe gradual positions within the arrangement. In this case,
it will be necessary: i) to define an appropriate arrangement of
modalities (or values) on the basis of the different degrees of
hardship/well-being; ii) to identify the two extreme conditions
such that (x) = 1 (full membership) and (x) = 0 (non-

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membership); iii) to specify the membership functions for all
the other intermediate positions.
1. Traditional approach
μ(x) =1 if
μ(x) = 0 if
2. Linear function
3. Trapezoidal Function
μ(x) =1 if
μ(x) = 0 if
μ(x) = if
The choice of the proper membership function depends on the
application context and on the kind of indicator that we want to
describe. For instance, in cases of variables with equi-
distributed modalities along an ordinal scale, the linear
functions indicated in graph can be appropriate. Otherwise, if it
is possible to identify a given interval above and below which
it is possible to define the opposite conditions of full
membership and no-membership, a trapezoidal function can be
chosen.
The basic operations in crisp sets theory, i.e. union and
intersection have been generalized with reference to the fuzzy
sets, so that for both those operations there exists a broad class
of function operations. Let’s assume, for simplicity, only two
fuzzy sets A and B (with reference to the first aggregation step,
they could respectively concern elementary indicators of a
given functioning), the most common class of operations of
which are the following:
1. Fuzzy intersection : this requires the simultaneous
satisfaction of each elementary condition and corresponds to
the logical conjunction “and” :
standard (or strong) intersection
= min [ ] [1.1]
weak intersection (or algebraic product)
= [ . ] [1.2]
bounded difference
= max [0, + -1] [1.3]
and the relationship among them is
[2]
2. Fuzzy union: The satisfaction of at least one of the
conditions is, in this case, required. This notion corresponds to
the logical disjunction “or” for which some interchangeability
among the arguments is assumed or admitted.
Standard (or strong) union
= max[, ] [2.1]
weak union (or algebraic sum)
= [ + - . ] [2.2]
bounded sum
= min[1, + ] [2.3]

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and the relationship among them is :
≤ [3]
Since each of these aggregation procedures satisfies a different
axiom structure share common property commutative,
associative and assumes a distinctive meaning, the choice
among them is strictly related to the specific context of
analysis. However, some brief general remarks about these
operations could be useful for understanding their meaning.
Standard intersection and union operations focus, respectively,
on the least and the most favorable position, so the
membership grades to the composite set will be the lower value
of μ to the elementary sets in the former case, and the highest
values in the latter. They implicitly excluded that there may be
any sort of compensation between indicators, and it can be a
proper aggregation in case of a positive correlation between
them (i.e. A B ⇑). On the contrary, the second class of
operators (1.2 and 2.2) admits the possibility of compensation,
leads to evaluation criteria reflecting both classifications, and
could be an adequate operation for aggregating independent
indicators (i.e. A⊥B). Finally, bounded difference and bounded
sum have a more frequent use in the case of a negative
correlation between indicators (A ⇑ B ⇓), but they reduce the
possibility to “fuzzify” the extreme values. A different way to
consider any kind of aggregation operation on n fuzzy sets
(with n≥2) is to define a function :
h : → [0,1] [4]
If applied to n fuzzy sets ,......, defined on X,
function h produces an aggregate (fuzzy) set by operating on
the membership grades of these sets for each element x . In
other words :
(x) = h ( (x), (x), . ...,
(x)) [5]
The union and intersection operators discussed above represent
a special case of this generalization. If we simply denote with
….., the membership grades of each element
belonging to sets ,......, the relationship within
the class of operators is the following :
min ( ….., ) ≤ h ( ….., ) ≤ max (
….., ) [6]
A minimal axiomatic structure is usually associated with the
function h and the included boundary condition, monotonicity,
continuity and symmetry. A parametric class of operators
satisfying this axiomatic structure is the generalized means :
hα ( ….., )
[7]
with α equal to 1 for the arithmetic mean, α= -1 for the
harmonic mean and α= 0 for the geometric mean. Finally, if we
remove the symmetry axiom, a class of weighted averaging
operations can be derived :
hα = … .., , )
[8]
Where the weighting structure, expressed by ≥ 0 and
= 1 specifies the relative importance assigned to each
aggregate set. The selection of a suitable weighting structure is
an old and questionable issue.
In a multidimensional approach, if each dimension of human
well-being is considered as equally relevant, a neutral choice
could be to assign an equal weight to all constitutive elements,
as in [8]: in this way we are not called upon to express uneasy
judgments or to define a ranking among them. Alternatively, if
we want to maintain an “objective” approach to the
measurement, a frequency-based weighting can be adopted,
and in this case the weighting structure is directly drawn from
reality. Desai, Shah (1988), for instance, define wi as the
complement to one to the proportion of deprived people .
Cerioli, Zani (1990), suggest defining wi as an inverse function
of the frequency of the corresponding symptom of deprivation
:
= ln 1/ [9]
where the choice of the logarithm is justified with the
opportunity of not giving too much importance to the
modalities showing a very low frequency. In a similar way, but
with a direct relation to the above membership function [2],
Cheli, Lemmi (1995) specify the following weighting structure
:
= In [ [10]
that represents a generalization of the previous weighting
structure [9].
An overall index of well-being has been computed for each
reference unit through union, intersection and average
operators. This is particularly true for multidimensional
analysises where dimensions of well-being that are
qualitatively and intrinsically distinct are assessed.
Example: Migrated Students’ Multidimensional Well Being
Fuzzy Relations: In the following example, a fuzzy relation is
conveniently represented by n-dimensional membership array
whose entries correspond to n-tuple in the universal set. The
entries take values representing the membership grade of the
corresponding n-tuples.
Let R be a fuzzy relations between the Migrated students say
Set X= ( and Functionings Set Y = (
that is ( -housing or safe
living, Health,
Education and knowledge, - social interactions and
psychological conditions respectively) which represent
the relational concept, R=“Well-Being.” The multidimensional
membership grades are given bellow.
R
0.4
X= Students

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0.6 0.5 0.3 0.4
0.4 0.5
0.6
0.5 0.7
0.2 0.3
0.1
0.2 0.4
0.4 0.5
0.4
0.3 0.5
0.3 0.4
0.5
0.2 0.4
his example can be interpreted based on Max- Min
composition [ Min( ]
The Max- Min Composition is associative i.e
= ( k-times) Sen’s Multidimensional
well-being assessment average membership degrees by
personal and social characteristics are given by-
Table -1
Migrated
Students(Country
wise or area)
Standard
Union
operator
Standard
Intersection
operator
Un-
weighted
average
operator
0.907 0.216 0.545
0.922 0.246 0.575
0.898 0.215 0.539
0.900 0.185 0.507
0.899 0.191 0.513
The result shows that relatively low fulfillment in education
and knowledge as well as in the participation in the social life
outside of family and friends affects the migrated students. The
degree of satisfaction regarding the main spheres of their own
life, and especially for education, social interaction, personal
and psychological condition is significantly low. A slight
disparity, mainly in health, education, knowledge and
participation in the social life that, however, does not affect the
subjective perception of their own condition, as the differences
between migrants as such. Health, education and social life
have the lowest performance in the case of migrants. The
picture is more exhaustive if we observe the results in terms of
functionings achieved for different groups of the population
which, however, to a large extent reflects the above results
related to elementary indicators. With reference to the
subjective and relational dimensions of well-being, the
membership degrees to the psychological functioning are, on
average, relatively low for all groups without meaningful
differences, Therefore, it seems possible to affirm that the list
of relevant functionings chosen has allowed us to depict a
richer picture and to capture complementary dimensions of
human well-being.
The last step of our analysis refers to an overall index of
individual well-being. We report the average membership
degrees to the composite fuzzy set obtained by union,
intersection and average operators on the five elementary fuzzy
subsets. The different meaning of these operators has to be
considered when we look at their absolute value standard
intersection operator refers to the worst performance in the
functionings space, so it could be interpreted as a sort of
deprivation index in (at least) one of the elementary
dimensions of well-being; on the other hand, the union
operator highlights the better performance, and it could be
assumed to be the distance from a full achievement in (at least
one) well-being dimension; finally, the un-weighted average
lies in-between and postulates a condition of symmetry among
elementary sub-sets. Thus we can guess the some
comprehensive level of understanding of the migrated students
stay in and around Chennai.The study substantiates that
migration of any kind creates social exclusion in society;
which finally affect the well-being of the students as well as
society in general. Thus Sen’s theory is very much applicable
to the topic which we have dealt with.
V. FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS: SOCIAL
INCLUSIVE INTEGRATED APPROACH
To achieve this goal, it is needed to invest significant resources
in a variety of activities and initiatives designed to increase
security in campus; there is need to increase students’ ability to
make responsible decisions that enhance their well-being and
leverage positive relationship with local law enforcement
agencies by mixing with each other. It is recommended to give
highest priorities at the University level by providing the safety
and well-being to students, faculty and staff. In order to work
to the best, though it is essential to look after physical,
emotional, spiritual and social wellbeing that students
socialize, have fun, relax, and enjoy being together.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
The main purpose of this paper is to suggest practical
implementation of Sen’s capability approach that is able to
preserve its interpretative reality and methodological problems
that couldn’t find an operative solution in more standard
approaches to migrated students and their well-being analysis.
A strategy based on fuzzy sets theory has been suggested to
analyze why this kind of approach could be useful for dealing
with the complexity of a multidimensional assessment of well-
being. With the aim of testing this methodology, an empirical
exercise based on micro-data referred to migrated students has
been done and more clarifying analysis of well-being
dimensions has been obtained. The analysis depicts that the
poorer group affected by migration is the student community
and their well-beings in terms of safe living, educations, social
and psychological well-being.
REFERENCES
[1] Chiappero Martinetti E. (2000), A Multidimensional Assessment of Well-
Being Based on Sen’s Functioning Approach, Societa Italiana di
Economia, Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali, pp: 1- 37.
[2] Sen A. (1983), Choice, Welfare and Measurement, Oxford University
Press.Sen A. (1985), The Standard of Living, Cambridge, pp: 1-20.
[3] George J.Klir and Bo Yuan, (2008), Fuzzy Sets and Fuzzy Logic Theory
and Applications, Prentice Hall of India Private Limited, pp: 121-158.
[4] A Kufmann A.(1975), Introduction to the Theory of Fuzzy Subsets,
Volume-1, Fundamental Theoretical Elements, Universite de Louvain
Louvain, Belgium,pp:62-76.
Y =Functioning’s

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