RESEARCH ARTICLE d n

oe Norway [4,5]. The persisting and partly increasing socio-economic differences in mortality, also in advanced wel-lower strata are healthier than their native counterparts, immigration may narrow the size of socioeconomic Elstad et al. BMC Public Health (2015) 15:364 DOI 10.1186/s12889-015-1717-2countries – has been observed in many countries, such as1NOVA, Oslo and Akershus University College, Oslo, Norway Full list of author information is available at the end of the articlefare states with relatively small income inequalities, have puzzled researchers. Several explanations have been put forward [6,7], but immigration is seldom taken into con-sideration when the issue is examined. In this study, we ask how mortality inequalities in Norway have been in-fluenced by immigration. Immigrants will often belong to lower socioeconomic strata [8]. If immigrants who inequalities in mortality. Through similar mechanisms the mortality of high-status immigrants may influence the pattern of socioeconomic inequalities in mortality in the total population. How immigration impacts on socioeconomic inequal-ities in mortality is partly an effect of the overall health situation of immigrants. Compared to the mortality level in the native non-immigrant majority, lower mortality among immigrants – also immigrants from non-Western * Correspondence