Monday, June 12, 2006
Are immigrants healthier than U.S. born ethnics?
"Immigrants have been consistently observed to enjoy more favorable health/mortality outcomes than natives, even after controlling for SES and other demographic and social factors" and this MA thesis in Sociology (2005) from Bowling Green State University by Weiwei Zhang suggests the "salmon bias." That means, the sick among the immigrants become emigrants and go home leaving the more healthy in the U.S.
From the abstract (OhioLink ETD): "The hypothesis concerning migration selection is that the foreign-born appear healthier because of a greater tendency for healthier persons to immigrate, and reversely, a greater tendency for unhealthy persons to emigrate (commonly referred to as the “salmon bias” hypothesis). Using March Supplements of the annual Current Population Survey (CPS) and the matched NHIS-NDI files, this paper examines health disparities between Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans, and explores the possibility that emigration among Mexican immigrants residing in the United States affects the assessment of their general health situation. A new approach for estimating emigration rates based on the matched CPS files is applied in the analysis. The results generally support the salmon bias hypothesis, showing higher emigration rates for unhealthy foreign-born Mexicans compared with their healthy counterparts. This pattern holds for young and old Mexican immigrants, but not among people at working ages. Gender differences show that the out-migration effect is stronger among female Mexican immigrants compared to males. Duration of residence does not appear to be related to health selectivity in emigration independent of age. Although the selectivity effect appears small when observed over the course of a single year, the effect cumulates over time, reaching levels that may produce the relatively high level of health observed among Mexican immigrants who remain living in the United States."
"Explaining The Hispanic Paradox: An Examination of The Out-Migration Effect on The Health Composition of The Mexican Immigration Population." Zhang, Weiwei.
Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Sociology, 2005.
From the abstract (OhioLink ETD): "The hypothesis concerning migration selection is that the foreign-born appear healthier because of a greater tendency for healthier persons to immigrate, and reversely, a greater tendency for unhealthy persons to emigrate (commonly referred to as the “salmon bias” hypothesis). Using March Supplements of the annual Current Population Survey (CPS) and the matched NHIS-NDI files, this paper examines health disparities between Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans, and explores the possibility that emigration among Mexican immigrants residing in the United States affects the assessment of their general health situation. A new approach for estimating emigration rates based on the matched CPS files is applied in the analysis. The results generally support the salmon bias hypothesis, showing higher emigration rates for unhealthy foreign-born Mexicans compared with their healthy counterparts. This pattern holds for young and old Mexican immigrants, but not among people at working ages. Gender differences show that the out-migration effect is stronger among female Mexican immigrants compared to males. Duration of residence does not appear to be related to health selectivity in emigration independent of age. Although the selectivity effect appears small when observed over the course of a single year, the effect cumulates over time, reaching levels that may produce the relatively high level of health observed among Mexican immigrants who remain living in the United States."
"Explaining The Hispanic Paradox: An Examination of The Out-Migration Effect on The Health Composition of The Mexican Immigration Population." Zhang, Weiwei.
Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Sociology, 2005.
# posted by Norma : 6/12/2006 06:33:00 PM
