@article{66491,
  author = {Tod G. Hamilton},
  title = {The Healthy Immigrant (Migrant) Effect: In Search of a Better Native-born Comparison Group},
  abstract = { <p>
	This paper evaluates whether immigrants{\textquoteright} initial health advantage over their U.S.-born counterparts results primarily from characteristics correlated with their birth countries (e.g., immigrant culture) or from selective migration (e.g., unobserved characteristics such as motivation and ambition) by comparing recent immigrants{\textquoteright} health to that of recent U.S.-born interstate migrants ({\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}U.S.-born movers{\textquotedblright}). Using data from the 1999{\textendash}2013 waves of the March Current Population Survey, I find that, relative to U.S.-born adults (collectively), recent immigrants have a 6.1 percentage point lower probability of reporting their health as fair or poor. Changing the reference group to U.S.-born movers, however, reduces the recent immigrant health advantage by 28\%. Similar reductions in the immigrant health advantage occurs in models estimated separately by either race/ethnicity or education level. Models that examine health differences between recent immigrants and U.S.-born movers who both moved for a new job{\textemdash}a primary motivation behind moving for both immigrants and the U.S.-born{\textemdash}show that such immigrants have only a 1.9 percentage point lower probability of reporting their health as fair or poor. Together, the findings suggest that changing the reference group from U.S.-born adults collectively to U.S.-born movers reduces the identified immigrant health advantage, indicating that selective migration plays a significant role in explaining the initial health advantage of immigrants in the United States.
</p>
 },
  year = {2015},
  journal = {Social Science Research},
  pages = {353-365},
  month = {08/2015},
  url = {http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0049089X1500160X/1-s2.0-S0049089X1500160X-main.pdf?_tid=b5ef560c-694c-11e6-b9e1-00000aab0f01\&acdnat=1471969067_ff668a790b1ee500f1cbdef34f9669e9},
  language = {eng},
}