IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v76y2021i10p2155-2168..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Immigration Background and the Widowhood Effect on Mortality
[The Latino mortality paradox: A test of the “salmon bias” and healthy migrant hypotheses]

Author

Listed:
  • Jennifer Caputo
  • Peng Li
  • Mine Kühn
  • Henrik Brønnum-Hansen
  • Anna Oksuzyan
  • Deborah S Carr

Abstract

ObjectivesWidowhood is a stressful life event with one of the most profound negative effects on health and longevity. Immigrant populations are growing and aging throughout Western nations, and marginalization and cultural differences may make some immigrants especially vulnerable to the stressors of widowhood. However, studies have yet to systematically explore whether the widowhood effect differs between immigrant and native-born individuals.MethodsUsing Danish population register data from 1980 to 2014, this study assesses whether the relationship between widowhood and mortality differs between immigrants from 10 countries and native-born Danes aged 50 and older at 0–2, 3–5, and 6 and more years post-widowhood.ResultsWe find that immigrant men are at higher risk of dying in the first 2 years after experiencing widowhood than Danish-born men, but these mortality differences dissipate over longer periods. Immigrant women have a higher risk of having died 3 and more years after a spouse’s death than Danish women. Patterns vary further by country of origin.DiscussionThe results suggest that some immigrants may suffer more from widowhood than native-born individuals, giving insight into how immigration background may influence the health effects of negative life events. They also underscore the potential vulnerabilities of aging immigrant populations to stressors encountered in older age.

Suggested Citation

  • Jennifer Caputo & Peng Li & Mine Kühn & Henrik Brønnum-Hansen & Anna Oksuzyan & Deborah S Carr, 2021. "Immigration Background and the Widowhood Effect on Mortality [The Latino mortality paradox: A test of the “salmon bias” and healthy migrant hypotheses]," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 76(10), pages 2155-2168.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:76:y:2021:i:10:p:2155-2168.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbab090
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Liebig, 2007. "The Labour Market Integration of Immigrants in Denmark," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 50, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Flake, Regina, 2012. "Multigenerational Living Arrangements among Migrants," Ruhr Economic Papers 366, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    2. Smirnykh, L. & Polaykova, E., 2020. "Income and the integration of migrants in the Russian labour market," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 47(3), pages 84-104.
    3. Marek Szarucki & Jan Brzozowski & Jelena Stankevičienė, 2016. "Determinants of self-employment among Polish and Romanian immigrants in Germany," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 598-612, July.
    4. Nisar Ahmad & Rayhaneh Esmaeilzadeh, 2009. "Immigrant-Native Differences in Earnings Mobility Processes: Evidence from Canadian and Danish Data," Economics Working Papers 2009-13, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    5. Regina Flake, 2012. "Multigenerational Living Arrangements among Migrants," Ruhr Economic Papers 0366, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    6. Anja Koebrich Leon, 2013. "Does Cultural Heritage affect Employment decisions – Empirical Evidence for Second Generation Immigrants in Germany," Working Paper Series in Economics 270, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    7. Michael S. Rendall & Flavia Tsang & Jennifer K. Rubin & Lila Rabinovich & Barbara Janta, 2010. "Contrasting Trajectories of Labor-Market Integration Between Migrant Women in Western and Southern Europe [Trajectoires d’intégration des immigrées sur le marché du travail: une comparaison entre l," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 26(4), pages 383-410, November.
    8. Sebastian Butschek & Thomas Walter, 2014. "What active labour market programmes work for immigrants in Europe? A meta-analysis of the evaluation literature," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-18, December.
    9. Selda Dudu, 2022. "Employability and Labor Income of Immigrants in the US: A Special Focus on the Roles of Language and Home Country Income Level," World Journal of Applied Economics, WERI-World Economic Research Institute, vol. 8(1), pages 15-34, June.
    10. Frederik Thuesen & Vibeke Jakobsen & Nina T. Dalgaard & Bjørn C. A. Viinholt, 2020. "PROTOCOL: Interventions to improve the economic self‐sufficiency of unemployed immigrants from non‐Western countries," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), December.
    11. Walter, Thomas & Butschek, Sebastian, 2013. "What Active Labour Market Programmes Work for Immigrants in Europe?," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79745, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    12. Picot, Garnett & Sweetman, Arthur, 2011. "Canadian Immigration Policy and Immigrant Economic Outcomes: Why the Differences in Outcomes between Sweden and Canada?," IZA Policy Papers 25, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Umar Z Ikram & Davide Malmusi & Knud Juel & Grégoire Rey & Anton E Kunst, 2015. "Association between Integration Policies and Immigrants’ Mortality: An Explorative Study across Three European Countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(6), pages 1-14, June.
    14. Peter Huber & Klaus Nowotny & Julia Bock-Schappelwein, 2010. "Qualification Structure, Over- and Under-qualification of the Foreign Born in Austria and the EU," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 41226, Juni.
    15. repec:zbw:rwirep:0366 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Jutvik, Kristoffer & Robinson, Darrel, 2019. "Limited time or secure residence? A study on the short-term effects of temporary and permanent residence permits on labour market participation," Working Paper Series 2018:17, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    17. Anja Köbrich León, 2013. "Does Cultural Heritage Affect Employment Decisions: Empirical Evidence for First- and Second Generation Immigrants in Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 553, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    18. David Coleman, 2009. "Divergent Patterns in the Ethnic Transformation of Societies," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 35(3), pages 449-478, September.
    19. Jutta Hoehne & Ines Michalowski, 2016. "Long-Term Effects of Language Course Timing on Language Acquisition and Social Contacts: Turkish and Moroccan Immigrants in Western Europe," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 133-162, March.
    20. Riccardo Natoli & Beverley Jackling & Asheley Jones, 2018. "Examining the Usefulness of an Accounting Work‐readiness Program as Perceived by Employed Program Graduates," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 28(3), pages 345-355, September.
    21. Hanna Wielandt, 2015. "Employment Polarization and Immigrant Employment Opportunities," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2015-025, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:76:y:2021:i:10:p:2155-2168.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.