Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/169357 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 124
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Maastricht
Abstract: 
The health status of people is a precious commodity and central to economic, socio-political, and environmental dimensions of any country. Yet it is often the missing statistic in all general statistics, demographics, and presentations about the portrait of immigrants and natives. In this paper we are concerned with international migration and health outcomes in the host countries. Through a general literature review and examination of specific immigration countries, we provide insights into the Healthy Immigrant Paradox and the health assimilation of immigrants as we also elucidate selection and measurement challenges. While health is part of human capital, health assimilation is the mirror image of earnings assimilation. Namely, immigrants arrive with better health compared to natives and their health deteriorates with longer residence in the host country, converging to the health of natives or becoming even worse. A deeper understanding of immigrant health trajectories, and disparities with natives and other immigrants is of great value to societies and policymakers, who can design appropriate policy frameworks that address public health challenges, and prevent the health deterioration of immigrants.
Subjects: 
Health status
Healthy Immigrant Paradox
International migration
Assimilation
Age-Cohort-Period effects
Selection
Aging
JEL: 
I00
I10
I12
I14
I18
J00
F22
J11
J14
J15
J24
J61
O15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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