Health Inequalities in Germany: Assessing Differences in Health of Migrants and Native Germans Using a Propensity Score Matching Approach and the SF-12 Physical and Mental Health Scale

The aim of the study is to compare health outcomes of migrants and the native German population, testing for the existence of a Healthy Immigrant Effect (HIE). The study contributes a broad theoretical analysis of the HIE and makes use of a wide spectrum of variables to model health (using the SF-12). The HIE is marked by an observed health advantage for migrants, when compared to the host population, which declines with the years since migration. Assessing different types of selection processes, it is assumed that mass migration to post-industrial countries is characterized by favouring the inflow of healthy individuals from weaker economies working in the low-wage sector due to the cost aspect of migration and differences in wages for adequate work. Socioeconomic and -structural differences of migrant and host population as well as psychosocial stressors like acculturation cause the deteroriation of the health adavantage with increasing years since migration. Using cross-sectional data from the 2016 wave of the Socio-Economic Panel this study compares health outcomes (generated from the SF-12) between recent migrants (≤ 10 years since migration), non-recent migrants (> 10 years since migration) and the German native population. Propensity score matching analyses reveal a health advantage for recent migrants compared to non-recent migrants as well as to the German native population, while non-recent migrants remain statistically indistinguishable from the native German population, implying a health assimilation effect