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Association between cultural distance and migrant self-rated health

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Abstract

We study whether migrant health in Europe is associated with the cultural distance between their host country and country of origin. To this end, we run multilevel regression models on data merging self-rated health and social background of ≥3800 migrants from the European Social Survey with an index of cultural distance based on country differences in values, norms and attitudes measured in the World Values Survey. We find that higher levels of cultural distance are associated with worse migrant health. This association is comparable in size with the negative association between health and female (compared with male) gender but less important than the association between health and education level. In addition, this association is less significant among second-generation than first-generation migrants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ghent University, De Pintelaan 185 6K3, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Jens Detollenaere & Sara Willems

  2. Ghent University, Sint-Pietersplein 6, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Stijn Baert

  3. Research Foundation-Flanders, Brussels, Belgium

    Stijn Baert

  4. University of Antwerp, Antwerpen, Belgium

    Stijn Baert

  5. Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Stijn Baert

  6. IZA, Bonn, Germany

    Stijn Baert

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  1. Jens Detollenaere
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Correspondence to Jens Detollenaere.

Appendix

Appendix

Tables 3, 4, and 5 illustrate the model-building process.

Table 3 Step-by-step building of the multilevel linear regression model for cultural distance as reflected in subjective general health of all migrants
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Table 4 Step-by-step building of the multilevel linear regression model of cultural distance on subjective general health of first-generation migrants
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Table 5 Step-by-step building of the multilevel linear regression model of cultural distance on subjective general health of second-generation migrants
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Detollenaere, J., Baert, S. & Willems, S. Association between cultural distance and migrant self-rated health. Eur J Health Econ 19, 257–266 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-017-0881-y

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