Migration, ethnicity, health and disease

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses migration, ethnicity, health, and disease with reference to Britain. Many black and Asian children have been born in Britain in the last 30 years, but there is little information in official statistics. There is good informal evidence that many young blacks of British and Caribbean birth simply did not register in 1981 and 1971. This has serious implications for the use of official statistics in interpreting the high rates of schizophrenia and denominator figures for young blacks are probably gross underestimates in the larger inner cities of England. In the United States, ethnic or racial breakdown of health and vital statistics has allowed programmes and preventive efforts to focus on minority health problems. Within each migrant ethnic group, there are marked variations of social class, acculturation, and length of stay in the host country. Most blacks in Britain are either Caribbean or West African in origin but differences in culture, health, language, religion, and social class are as great as those between an Anglo-Saxon Londoner and a Russian in the Caucasus.