Health inequalities in Germany: differences in the ‘Healthy migrant effect’ of European, non-European and internal migrants

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study aims at comparing physical and mental health outcomes of different migrant groups and the native German population, testing for the presence of a healthy migrant effect (HME) and its potential differences between groups. The HME is marked by an observed health advantage for migrants compared to the host population, which declines with increasing years since migration. Macroeconomic, institutional and cultural differences of sending countries or regions define the pre-migration and the host country situation differently for European, Non-European and internal migrants. These conditions are assumed to have an impact on initial health differences as well as on health differences after longer exposure to the host country. Using cross-sectional data from the 2016 wave of the German Socioeconomic Panel, physical and mental health outcomes (generated from the SF-12) are compared between recent international and internal migration groups (≤10 years since migration), non-recent international and internal migration groups (>10 years since migration) and the native German-born population without migration experience. Propensity score matching analyses reveal the presence of a HME for both European and Non-European migrants, but not for internal migrants. This effect differs on the outcome measure and the native comparison group.