Selective Migration and the Health of Black Immigrants

A large literature documents that most immigrant subgroups have a health advantage over their U.S.-born counterparts upon arrival in the United States. This health advantage erodes as immigrants’ tenure in the United States increases, thought to be caused in part by immigrants’ exposure to health-impairing aspects of the host environment (e.g., dietary practices, social environments, and sedentary lifestyles). This pattern of health has been termed the “Healthy Immigrant Effect.” Few studies, however, evaluate whether black immigrants—a group that accounted for more than 20% of the growth of the black population in the 2000s, exhibit a similar health pattern. Using data from the 1996 to 2013 waves of the March Current Population Survey (CPS), I examine whether black immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa—the primary source regions of black immigrants in the United States—display the pattern of health observed for other immigrant subgroups. Results show that most arrival cohorts of black immigrants have more favorable health than their U.S.-born blacks upon arrival in the United States. The results also suggest that while African immigrants seem to maintain their health advantage over U.S.-born blacks as their tenure of U.S. residence increases, the health of Caribbean immigrants declines significantly as their U.S. tenure increases.