This study addresses immigrant health from the point of view of social health inequalities research. It studies differences in overweight between immigrants and natives in two countries, France and Spain. Controlling for socioeconomic characteristics, the paper focuses on effects that pertain to the country of origin and to the country of arrival in explaining overweight prevalence. The authors first estimate and compare between France and Spain, in women and men, the effect of immigration status on overweight when controlled for age, socioeconomic status (SES), and country of origin. They then study the role of length of stay as proxied by naturalisation status and according to country of origin. The paper investigates the role of GDP, HDI and obesity prevalence in the country of origin. The authors then estimate how differences in population compositions and differences in estimated coefficients contribute to observed differences in overweight between natives and migrants for each country.
New working paper investigates the social determinants of overweight among immigrants in France and Spain
9 July 2015
In this IMI Working Paper, Yasser Moullan and Paul Dourgnon address immigrant health - specifically instances of overweight - from the viewpoint of social health inequalities research
