1 Rennie Lee UCLA Department of Sociology Immigrant Health Around the World: Evidence from the World Values Survey COEMH Workshop May 13, 2010

Background 2 Two opposing views of immigrants health Immigrants as less healthy Immigrants long viewed as having poor health and bringing infectious diseases “Healthy Immigrant Paradox” Immigrants as healthier than native born

Why Study Immigrant Health? 3 Public health issue- health care system Indicator of assimilation Migration policy Long part of US migration policy: screening, AIDS test

Research Question 4 What is the relationship between immigrant status and self-rated health? Descriptively Net of individual characteristics How does the health of immigrants compare with the native born in 32 countries?

Data: World Values Survey 5 World Values Survey Five waves of data from Ask same questions in each country 32 countries (at least 30 immigrants) N=43744 Self-rated health Immigrant status Demographic & Socioeconomic variables (sex, age, individual social class)

Sample Characteristics for 32 Countries 6 Immigrants Average health: 3.56 Average age: Average social class: 2.76 Native born Average health: 3.66 Average age: Average social class: 2.73

Immigrant & Native Born Self-Rated Health 7

8 OLS Regression Coefficients of Self-Rated Health for Estonia Model 1 Immigrant-0.23*** Female Age Age Squared Social Class Constant3.37*** N=1002 ***p<.001, **p<.01, *p<.05 Model 2Model ***-0.16*** -2.29**-2.49** *** 4.37***3.96***

9 OLS Regression Coffiecients of Self- Rated Health for 32 Countries 9 Macedonia Bosnia Federation Taiwan Georgia Czech Republic Azerbaijan Estonia Armenia Latvia Switzerland Puerto Rico South Africa Nigeria Model ** -0.46*** -0.35* -0.33** -0.29* -0.26* -0.23*** -0.15* -0.13* 0.27** 0.33** 0.42** Model ** * *** 0.43** Model * * * ***p<.001, **p<.01, *p<.05

Main Findings 10 Immigrant health is not statistically different from that of native born in 32 countries, net of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics Negative relationship between immigrant status and health is only a descriptive statistic

Implications 11 Perception of negative immigrant health may be shaped by: public discourse: stereotypes, media anti-immigrant rhetoric/ migration policy

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Possible Explanations Selectivity  Immigrants that arrive have higher health status than those left behind and those in destination country Assimilation  Immigrants converge to the health status of those in host country

OLS Regression Coefficients of Immigrant Self- Rated Health 14 Model 1Model 2Model 3 Republic of Moldova *0.18* Ukraine *0.09* ***p<.001, **p<.01, *p<.05