The effect of partners’ ethnicity on the health of Filipinas in Australia

Abstract

Women from the Philippines constitute one of the largest groups of female immigrants from Asia to Australia. One-third of these immigrants migrate to marry or join Australian husbands, and they are the largest group immigrating to Australia for these reasons. Social, physical and environmental factors, health status, and health service utilization were compared for Filipinas married to men born in Australia (FMA) and Filipinas married to men born in the Philippines (FMF), in order to explore the effect of marriage partner's background on acculturation, stress and mental health. It was hypothesized that: (1) Settlement-related life events such as moving house and changing jobs are likely to be more common among FMF than FMA because of less well-established networks in Australia. (2) FMA are likely to have better English language skills than FMF because of their increased exposure to Australian culture. (3) If FMF are disadvantaged in terms of acculturation their mental health outcomes should be worse than FMA. (4) Health differences between FMA and FMF will largely be due to differences in acculturation. FMA had greater English language proficiency than FMF. FMF were more likely to have moved house and experience difficulty or problems at work. FMF were more likely than FMA to experience problems handling daily tasks, stress, or other mental health problems, and have problems getting to a doctor at their last visit. Only differences in stress and problems accessing health services remained significant once differences in English language proficiency and life events were taken into account. FMA appear to experience less stress adapting to life in Australia, and fewer problems with their health and access to health services, as a result of fewer logistic barriers on settlement and due to greater exposure to language and the host culture. However, differences in health were not completely accounted for by differences in English Language proficiency and life events suggesting that other aspects of inter-cultural relationships may also be important in facilitating acculturation.