Abstract
Global migration towards and within Europe remains high, shaping the structure of populations. Approximately 24% of the total German population had a migration background in 2017. The aim of the study was to analyze the association between migration background and health-related quality of life (HrQoL) in Germany. The analyses were based on 2014 and 2016 data of the German Socio-Economic Panel. Differences in sociodemographic characteristics between migrant and non-migrant samples were equal by employment of the entropy balancing weights. HrQoL was measured using the physical (PCS) and mental (MCS) component summary scores of the SF-12v2. Associations between PCS and MCS scores and migration background were examined using Student’s t-test. The mean PCS and MCS scores of persons with migration background (n = 8533) were 51.5 and 50.9, respectively. Persons with direct migration background had a lower PCS score (−0.55, p < 0.001) and a higher MCS score (+1.08, p < 0.001) than persons without migration background. Persons with direct migration background differed with respect to both physical and mental HrQoL from persons without migration background in the German population. Differences in HrQoL for persons with indirect migration background had p = 0.305 and p = 0.072, respectively. Causalities behind the association between direct migration background and HrQoL are to be determined.
Highlights
Not much is known about potential differences in health-related quality of life (HrQoL) of those persons who migrated during the new migratory flows that have emerged in Europe and those persons who are descendants of parents with direct migration background who became sedentary in Germany compared to those persons without migration background
Concerning mental HrQoL, one study that used a chain sampling technique found lower mental HrQoL for persons with Polish migration background compared with persons without migration background, whereas the current study found higher mental HrQoL
It has to be highlighted that persons who are descendants of parents with direct migration background who became sedentary in Germany did not differ with respect to physical and mental HrQoL compared to persons without migration background
Summary
By definition of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), persons with a direct migration background are persons with their own migration experience born without. Persons with an indirect migration background are persons without their own migration experience who were born to at least one parent with direct migration background [2]. This definition is concurrent with the definition of migrants and second-generation migrants by the European Migration Network [3,4].
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