Health Assimilation Patterns Amongst Australian Immigrants*

Abstract

This paper compares the health of Australian immigrants with that of the Australian‐born population and examines the extent to which differences vary with time since migration. Health is measured using self‐reports of chronic diseases from three national health surveys. Probit models are used to estimate the health effects of immigrant arrival cohorts, years since migration and country of birth. We find that the health of Australian immigrants is better than the Australian‐born population, but the longer immigrants spend in Australia, the closer their health approximates that of the Australian‐born population. There are variations for different immigrant groups and for particular chronic diseases.

Immigration, barriers to healthcare and transnational ties: A case study of South Korean immigrants in Toronto, Canada

“…A persistent focus of exploration has been the nature and extent of the "healthy immigrant effect" (HIE) (McDonald and Kennedy, 2004;Kaestner et al, 2009;Setia et al, 2011;Biddle et al, 2007;De Maio and Kempsearch, 2010;Wang and Hu, 2013). According to Newbold (2011), significant decline in health status among immigrants to Canada can be noted as little as two years post-arrival.…”

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“…The existence of a significant health advantage for new immigrants and subsequent convergence to the health of natives is also documented for Canada, Australia, the UK and Germany (see, among others, Gee et al, 2004;Chiswick et al, 2006;Kennedy et al, 2006;Biddle et al, 2007;Sander, 2008;Giuntella and Mazzonna, 2014 and the references therein). An interesting channel of health convergence has been suggested in a recent study for Germany.…”

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