Marwân-al-Qays Bousmah, Jean-Baptiste Simon Combes et al., « Health differentials between citizens and immigrants in Europe : A heterogeneous convergence », Health Policy, déc. 2018

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Résumé

The lite­ra­ture on immi­gra­tion and health has provided mixed evidence on the health diffe­ren­tials between immi­grants and citi­zens, while a growing body of evidence alludes to the unhealthy assi­mi­la­tion of immi­grants. Relying on five different health measures, the present paper inves­ti­gates the hete­ro­ge­neity in health patterns between immi­grants and citi­zens, and also between immi­grants depen­ding on their country of origin. We use panel data on more than 100,000 older adults living in nine­teen Euro­pean coun­tries. Our panel data metho­do­logy allows for unob­served hete­ro­ge­neity. We docu­ment the exis­tence of a healthy immi­grant effect, of an unhealthy conver­gence, and of a reversal of the health diffe­ren­tials between citi­zens and immi­grants over time. We are able to esti­mate the time thre­shold after which immi­grants” health becomes worse than that of citi­zens. We further docu­ment some hete­ro­ge­neity in the conver­gence of health diffe­ren­tials between immi­grants and citi­zens in Europe. Namely, the unhealthy conver­gence is more pronounced in terms of chronic condi­tions for immi­grants from low-HDI coun­tries, and in terms of self-assessed health and body-mass index for immi­grants from medium- and high-HDI countries.