Estimating the Migrant Survival Advantage from Parental Orphanhood of Second Generation Migrants

Marc Luy, University of Rostock

It is well known that migrants are healthier and thus show lower mortality than the immobile population. Generally, this phenomenon is explained by a special selection effect which may influence mortality and morbidity rates and there is no doubt that the healthy migrant effect is apparent on the micro level. It is however unclear to which extent this phenomenon contributes to mortality differences on the macro level. In order to analyze the existence and the possible extent of the migrant survival advantage the orphanhood method is used as it is done in many developing countries by analyzing German survey data for 2,465 second generation migrants of Turkish and Italian origin as well as a German control group including 1,220 respondents. The results enable a quantitative estimation of the migrant survival advantage without the enormous bias that is usually apparent in official population statistics for the foreign population.