IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/crm/wpaper/2503.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Are Immigrants Selected on Height? And Does this Bring a Health Premium in the Destination Country?

Author

Listed:
  • Alessandro Ferrara

    (Free University, Berlin)

  • Renee Luthra

    (University of Essex)

  • Lucinda Platt

    (LSE)

Abstract

Using a specially constructed international dataset of adult heights, we assess the extent, drivers and consequences of migrant selectivity, measured as relative height. This offers a measure of health selectivity that precedes emigration and is stable over time. Applying this measure to representative data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we (i) evaluate whether it correlates with characteristics theoretically associated with migrant health selectivity, (ii) test the assumption that selectivity accounts for the commonly observed immigrant health advantage, and (iii) assess whether degree of selectivity sheds light on the paradox that immigrants’ health deteriorates over time since arrival. We find that while, on average, immigrants are positively selected on health and have better health on average than non-migrant Germans, greater selectivity is not associated with better health. However, more positively selected immigrants experience less deterioration in their health, whether evaluated cross-sectionally across arrival cohorts or longitudinally within individuals, helping to explain the immigrant health paradox. Overall, our results i) confirm that migrants are selected on health, ii) support theoretical expectations relating to migrant selection that higher barriers to migration increase selectivity, and iii) demonstrate that while most immigrants are healthier upon arrival, only more selected immigrants enjoy better health throughout adulthood.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessandro Ferrara & Renee Luthra & Lucinda Platt, 2025. "Are Immigrants Selected on Height? And Does this Bring a Health Premium in the Destination Country?," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2503, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    • Handle: RePEc:crm:wpaper:2503
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cream-migration.org/publ_uploads/25003.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michèle V. K. Belot & Timothy J. Hatton, 2012. "Immigrant Selection in the OECD," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(4), pages 1105-1128, December.
    2. Guillermina Jasso & Douglas S. Massey & Mark R. Rosenzweig & James P. Smith, 2004. "Immigrant Health--Selectivity and Acculturation," Labor and Demography 0412002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Zoya Gubernskaya, 2015. "Age at Migration and Self-Rated Health Trajectories After Age 50: Understanding the Older Immigrant Health Paradox," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 70(2), pages 279-290.
    4. Mathieu Ichou & Matthew Wallace, 2019. "The Healthy Immigrant Effect: The role of educational selectivity in the good health of migrants," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(4), pages 61-94.
    5. Erika Arenas & Noreen Goldman & Anne Pebley & Graciela Teruel, 2015. "Return Migration to Mexico: Does Health Matter?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(6), pages 1853-1868, December.
    6. Barry R. Chiswick & Yew Liang Lee & Paul W. Miller, 2008. "Immigrant Selection Systems And Immigrant Health," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 26(4), pages 555-578, October.
    7. Ferrara, Alessandro & Grindel, Carla & Brunori, Claudia, 2024. "A longitudinal perspective to migrant health: Unpacking the immigrant health paradox in Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 351, pages 1-10.
    8. Ferrara, Alessandro & Grindel, Carla & Brunori, Claudia, 2024. "A longitudinal perspective to migrant health: Unpacking the immigrant health paradox in Germany," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 351(C).
    9. George J. Borjas, 1991. "Immigration and Self-Selection," NBER Chapters, in: Immigration, Trade, and the Labor Market, pages 29-76, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Yasser Moullan & Florence Jusot, 2014. "Why is the "healthy immigrant effect" different between European countries?," Post-Print hal-01523956, HAL.
    11. George J. Borjas, 2021. "Self-Selection and the Earnings of Immigrants," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 4, pages 69-91, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    12. Katharine M. Donato & Erin R. Hamilton & Anthony Bernard-Sasges, 2019. "Gender and Health in Mexico: Differences between Returned Migrants and Nonmigrants," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 684(1), pages 165-187, July.
    13. Zerrin Salikutluk & Johannes Giesecke & Martin Kroh, 2016. "Refugees Entered the Labor Market Later Than Other Migrants," DIW Economic Bulletin, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 6(34/35), pages 407-413.
    14. Neil Mehta & Irma Elo, 2012. "Migrant Selection and the Health of U.S. Immigrants From the Former Soviet Union," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(2), pages 425-447, May.
    15. repec:dau:papers:123456789/13930 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Antonio Fidalgo & Alberto Holly & Marco Pecoraro & Philippe Wanner, 2016. "A nonparametric analysis of the healthy immigrant effect," IRENE Working Papers 16-15, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.
    2. Lídia Farré, 2016. "New evidence on the healthy immigrant effect," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(2), pages 365-394, April.
    3. Sun, Nan & Yang, Fan, 2021. "Impacts of internal migration experience on health among middle-aged and older adults—Evidence from China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    4. Amelie F. Constant, 2017. "The Healthy Immigrant Paradox and Health Convergence," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 15(03), pages 20-25, October.
    5. Mariele Macaluso, 2022. "The influence of skill-based policies on the immigrant selection process," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(2), pages 595-621, July.
    6. Simon Winter, 2020. "“It’s the Economy, Stupid!”: On the Relative Impact of Political and Economic Determinants on Migration," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 39(2), pages 207-252, April.
    7. Stefan Leopold & Jens Ruhose & Simon Wiederhold, 2025. "Why is the Roy–Borjas model unable to predict international migrant selection on education? Evidence from urban and rural Mexico," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(2), pages 300-322, February.
    8. Bettin, Giulia & Sacchi, Agnese, 2020. "Health spending in Italy: The impact of immigrants," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    9. Luigi Capoani & Cristoforo Imbesi & Francesca Rinaldi & Claudio Annibali, 2024. "Return migration, self-selection and labour market outcomes," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2024(2), pages 191-228.
    10. Simon Jean-Baptiste Combes & Nathalie Simonnot & Fabienne Azzedine & Abdessamad Aznague & Pierre Chauvin, 2019. "Self-Perceived Health among Migrants Seen in Médecins du Monde Free Clinics in Europe: Impact of Length of Stay and Wealth of Country of Origin on Migrants’ Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-14, December.
    11. Clemens, Michael A. & Mendola, Mariapia, 2024. "Migration from developing countries: Selection, income elasticity, and Simpson’s paradox," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    12. Grogger, Jeffrey & Hanson, Gordon H., 2011. "Income maximization and the selection and sorting of international migrants," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 42-57, May.
    13. Lucas Guichard, 2020. "Self-selection of Asylum Seekers: Evidence From Germany," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(3), pages 1089-1116, June.
    14. Christina J. Diaz & Liwen Zeng & Ana P. Martinez-Donate, 2018. "Investigating Health Selection Within Mexico and Across the US Border," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(2), pages 181-204, April.
    15. Yannu Zheng & Olof Ejermo, 2015. "How do the foreign-born perform in inventive activity? Evidence from Sweden," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(3), pages 659-695, July.
    16. Tao Xu, 2022. "The Effect of Health Change on Long-Term Settlement Intentions of International Immigrants in New Destination Countries: Evidence from Yiwu City in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-18, June.
    17. Zaiceva, A. & Zimmermann, K.F., 2016. "Migration and the Demographic Shift," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 119-177, Elsevier.
    18. Luthra, Renee Reichl & Platt, Lucinda, 2023. "Do immigrants benefit from selection? Migrant educational selectivity and its association with social networks, skills and health," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118629, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Ro, Annie & Fleischer, Nancy L. & Blebu, Bridgette, 2016. "An examination of health selection among U.S. immigrants using multi-national data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 114-121.
    20. Maskileyson, Dina, 2019. "Health trajectories of immigrants in the United States: Does income inequality of country of origin matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 246-255.

    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:crm:wpaper:2503. 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: CReAM Administrator or Matthew Nibloe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cmucluk.html .

    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.