Adult mortality among the descendants of immigrants in England and Wales: does a migrant mortality advantage persist beyond the first generation?

Wallace, Matthew

Abstract

Little is known about mortality among descendants of immigrants in western host countries because many descendants have not yet reached the ages of high mortality. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the migrant mortality advantage recently observed among immigrants in England and Wales persists, converges to levels of the White England and Wales-born population or reverses among their descendants. Survival analysis is used to study mortality among over 500,000 individuals in a large, longitudinal dataset (Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study). A recent update to this data provides a longer time series with an older sample of descendants to study. The analysis finds that, as a combined group, the descendants of immigrants have higher mortality than immigrants and White England and Wales-born. After adjusting for socioeconomic characteristics, mortality among descendants attenuates to the mortality level among the White England and Wales-born but remains high relative to immigrants. Analysis by ethnic minority group suggests there are important differences in mortality among descendants, particularly in the persistent high mortality among the descendants of Black Caribbeans. However, the age structure among descendants is still young and the estimates for ethnic minority sub-groups may not be robust. We await the further ageing of descendants to confirm or challenge these interesting sub-group findings by ethnicity.

Citation

Wallace, M. (2016). Adult mortality among the descendants of immigrants in England and Wales: does a migrant mortality advantage persist beyond the first generation?. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42(9), 1558-1577. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2015.1131973

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 9, 2015
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Oct 7, 2024
• Journal: Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies
• Print ISSN: 1369-183X
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 1558-1577
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2015.1131973