Excess under-five mortality of children born to immigrants: Longitudinal evidence from France

Immigrant children face significant disparities in terms of their survival. To investigate the role of parental origin in explaining these disparities, we used the large French socio-demographic panel, with a sample of 687,535 births from 1990 to 2020, to which a propensity score method and longitudinal approaches were applied. Our findings reveal that even after accounting for confounding factors by balancing sociodemographic variables, disparities in under-five mortality persist based on the mother’s origin. Specifically, notable differences in mortality were observed among three immigrant groups: women born in Sub-Saharan Africa, in North Africa, and in the group of regions including America, Oceania and others. Our results show no protective effect of mixed parenting on under-five mortality. Additionally, we observed that a higher proportion of children born to immigrant mothers in the municipality was associated with increased under-five mortality for children of native mothers and some children of immigrant mothers. Moreover, our study confirmed the influence of paternal support on child survival.