Migration and health: a study of effects of early life experiences and current socio-economic situation on mortality of immigrants in Sweden

Objectives. Previous research has demonstrated mortality differences between immigrants and natives living in Sweden. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of early life conditions in the country of birth and current socio-economic conditions in adult life in Sweden on cardiovascular, cancer, all other cause and total mortality among immigrants and natives in Sweden. Design. The cohort data concerning individual demographic characteristics and socio-economic conditions stems from the Swedish Longitudinal Immigrant Database (SLI), a register-based representative database, and consists of individuals from 11 countries of birth, born between 1921 and 1939, who were residents in Sweden between 1980 and 2001. The associations between current socio-economic conditions as well as infant mortality rates (IMR) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in the year and country of birth, and total, cardiovascular, cancer and 'all other' mortality in 1980-2001 were calculated by survival analysis using Cox proportional hazards regression to calculate hazard rate ratios. Results. The effects of current adult life socio-economic conditions in Sweden on mortality are both stronger and more straightforward than the effects of early life conditions in the sense that higher socio-economic status is significantly associated with lower mortality in all groups of diagnoses; however, we find associations between infant mortality rates (IMR) in the year and country of birth, and cancer mortality among men and women in the final model. Conclusions. Socioeconomic conditions in Sweden are more strongly associated with mortality than early life indicators IMR and GDP per capita in the year of birth in the country of origin. This finding has health policy and other policy implications

Intermarriage and Immigrant Integration in Sweden An Exploratory Analysis

In this article, we explore marital exogamy ( especially intermarriage between immigrants and natives) among 39 different immigrant groups using cross-sectional registry data for the total immigrant populations in Sweden in 2003. Immigrants who are better educated, who spend a longer time in Sweden before marriage and live outside the bigger cities are more likely to be married to natives. Controlling for age at immigration, education, time between immigration and marriage, settlement size and the relative size of the immigrant group of the opposite sex, immigrants from Western Europe ( excluding Finland) and the United States are more likely to be married to natives than are other immigrants. We also analyse the link between intermarriage and economic integration, with the results indicating a strong association between intermarriage and economic integration in terms of employment and income. Immigrants married to natives are more likely to be employed, and also to have higher individual and household income

Immigrant Employment and Earnings Growth in Canada and the U.S.: Evidence from Longitudinal Data

We study the short-term trajectories of employment, hours worked, and real wages of immigrants in Canada and the U.S. using nationally representative longitudinal datasets covering 1996-2008. Models with person fixed effects show that on average immigrant men in Canada do not experience any relative growth in these three outcomes compared to men born in Canada. Immigrant men in the U.S., on the other hand, experience positive annual growth in all three domains relative to U.S. born men. This difference is largely on account of low-educated immigrant men, who experience faster or longer periods of relative growth in employment and wages in the U.S. than in Canada. We further compare longitudinal and cross-sectional trajectories and find that the latter over-estimate wage growth of earlier arrivals, presumably reflecting selective return migration