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Published on: February 2, 2020
Association between cultural distance and migrant self-rated health
Jens Detollenaere1, Stijn Baert2,3,4,5,6, Sara Willems7
1Ghent University, De Pintelaan 185 6K3, 9000, Ghent, Belgium. Jens.Detollenaere@UGent.be.
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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