Immigration Effects on Community Drug Overdose Death Rates for Foreign-Born and U.S.-Born Populations

• In Event: Communities and Place: Immigration and Communities

Abstract

As the 21st century U.S. overdose crisis enters its third decade, there is no shortage of rhetoric claiming that immigration has contributed to U.S. drug problems. However, surprisingly little research has examined the macro-level relationships between immigration and drugs and especially overdose deaths. In addition, there is almost no work that has disaggregated these relationships based on nativity of the deceased to determine whether immigration effects on overdose differ for foreign-born and native-born groups. The current study addresses these gaps in research by providing a longitudinal analysis (2000 to 2015) of county-level immigration-overdose relationships overall and by substance type. All analyses are disaggregated by the nativity of the deceased to assess whether immigration effects on overdose deaths are similar for (1) U.S.-born, (2) foreign-born, and (3) Mexican-born populations. Overdose data are drawn from Center for Disease Control’s Restricted Access Multiple Cause of Death Mortality files combined with data on county contextual factors drawn from multiple macro-level data sources. Findings show that immigration has either neutral of overdose-reducing effects overall and across substance type. In addition, these relationships are remarkably similar for both U.S.-born and foreign-born populations, suggesting that “immigrant revitalization” effects on community overdose death rates extend to both immigrant and non-immigrant groups.

Authors

• Ben Feldmeyer, University of Cincinnati

• Diana Sun, Florida Atlantic University

• Calvin Proffit, University of Cincinnati