Test of the 'healthy migrant hypothesis': A longitudinal analysis of health selectivity of internal migration in Indonesia

Yao Lu

Social Science & Medicine, 2008, vol. 67, issue 8, 1331-1339

Abstract: Previous studies show migrants are generally healthier than the populations in receiving societies, a result generally attributed to the positive selection of migrants on health. This hypothesis, however, has not been adequately evaluated due to lack of adequate data. In this article, using high-quality longitudinal data from Indonesia, the health selectivity hypothesis, also referred to as the healthy migrant hypothesis, is examined with respect to internal migration. Specifically, this study explores whether pre-migration health status affects the likelihood of migration by comparing those from the sending population who do and do not move. Results show that migrants in Indonesia tend to be selected with respect to health and that this selection is robust to household unobserved heterogeneity. However, the strength and direction of the health-migration association vary by types of migration and dimensions of health.

Keywords: Indonesia; Migration; Healthy; migrant; Epidemiological; paradox (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(08)00322-5
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:socmed:v:67:y:2008:i:8:p:1331-1339

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().