In Search of the Healthy Immigrant Effect in Four West European Countries

Dina Maskileyson, Moshe Semyonov and Eldad Davidov
Additional contact information
Dina Maskileyson: Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne, Germany
Moshe Semyonov: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Eldad Davidov: Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne, Germany / University Research Priority Program “Social Networks,” University of Zurich, Switzerland

Social Inclusion, 2019, vol. 7, issue 4, 304-319

Abstract: The present research examines whether the ‘healthy immigrant effect’ thesis observed in the American context prevails also in the West European context. According to this thesis, immigrants are likely to be healthier than comparable nativeborn. Data for the analysis are obtained from the Generations and Gender Survey for the following countries: Austria, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Ordered logit regression models are estimated to compare the health of immigrants with the native-born population. The findings reveal that in all countries, immigrants tend to report poorer health than comparable third generation native-born Europeans, and that health disparities between second and third generation are smaller than health disparities between first-generation members and native-born regardless of second- or thirdgeneration membership. The findings in the West-European countries do not lend support to the healthy immigrant effect. We attribute the differences between the United States and the West European countries to differential selection processes and differences in healthcare policies.

Keywords: comparative health; generation studies; healthy immigrant effect; immigrants; United States; Western Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/2330 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v7:y:2019:i:4:p:304-319

DOI: 10.17645/si.v7i4.2330

Access Statistics for this article

Social Inclusion is currently edited by Mariana Pires

More articles in Social Inclusion from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().