Health Selection into Migration. Evidence from Matched Case-Control Analyses

Thijs van den Broek , Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management

The current study aims to shed light on health selection into international migration from Poland to the Netherlands and from Turkey to Germany. It is well-documented that, at least upon arrival, immigrants tend to have better health than natives without a migration background in Western receiving countries. This so-called healthy immigrant effect is often interpreted as evidence of health selection into migration. There may, however, be alternative explanations, e.g., overall health differences between migrants’ countries of origin and receiving countries or educational or socio-economic selectivity. The current study’s assessment of health selection into migration acknowledges these issues by a combined analysis of data from different migrant surveys collected among migrants of Polish origin in the Netherlands migrants of Turkish origin in Germany with European Social Survey data of Polish natives in Poland and Turkish natives in Turkey. Conditional logistic regression analyses for matched case-control groups will be performed to account for potential confounded selection by (combinations of) key socio-demographic background characteristics. The results provide evidence for health selection into migration from Poland to the Netherlands and from Turkey to Germany. The analytical approach used makes it unlikely that the estimated health selection into migration is confounded by (the interplay of) socio-demographic characteristics such gender, age, educational attainment, and parental socio-economic status.

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 Presented in Session 42. Health and ageing of immigrants