Immigration and Health among non-Hispanic Whites: The Impact of Arrival Cohort and Region of Birth

• In Event: 3129 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 14. Research at the Intersection of Race and Health

Abstract

Immigration is central to our understanding of U.S. racial/ethnic health disparities, yet relatively little is known about the health of white immigrants—a group whose ethnic origins have become increasingly diverse. This study uses nationally representative data from the American Community Survey (2008-2016) to examine differences in physical disability among non-Hispanic whites ages 40+ (n=10,847,438) by nativity, region of birth and period of arrival in the U.S. The analysis finds that foreign-born whites have a slightly lower prevalence of disability than the native-born, and this varies by arrival cohort. Immigrants who arrived in the 1991-2000 cohort have a smaller advantage over U.S.-born whites than immigrants in the earlier and later cohorts. Compositional changes in region of birth, especially the influx of eastern Europeans and Middle Easterners during the 1990s, explained this variation. These findings highlight intra-ethnic inequality among whites that is obscured by the aggregate category.

Authors

• Jen'nan G. Read, Duke University

• Jessica West, Duke University

• Christina Kamis, Duke University