‘Americanization’ Hurts Black Immigrants’ Health.

A new study by sociologists provides disturbing evidence that living in white-majority nations is bad for black people’s health. Black people who immigrate to the U.S. from black-majority regions of the world, such as Africa, arrive with health that is better than that of U.S.-born blacks — and as good as or better than that of U.S.-born whites. However, after they have lived in the U.S. for awhile, “their health advantage erodes as they and their children begin to suffer the consequences of being black in America,” says Rice sociologist Michael Emerson.

While the health of all Americans has improved in the past century, the gap between whites and blacks has actually widened. A new study of black immigrants to the United States reveals an even more disturbing pattern: Living in white-majority nations actively damages black people’s health.

Black people who immigrate to the U.S. from black-majority regions of the world, such as Africa, arrive with health that is better than that of U.S.-born blacks — and as good or better than that of U.S.-born whites. However, their health erodes the longer they live in the U.S. Black immigrants from white-majority Europe came with health already worse than other black immigrant groups and as poor as that of black Americans.

“‘Americanization’ may actually be hurting black immigrants’ health,” says Rice sociologist Michael Emerson. “But what may be even more important is that living in white-majority regions seems to hurt black-population health, perhaps due to heightened stress, lower self-esteem and discrimination.”

“Even black immigrants whose health status is comparable to U.S.-born white Americans’ see their health advantage erode as they and their children begin to suffer the consequences of being black in America.

“Black Europeans are the least healthy of all the black immigrant groups we studied,” Emerson said, “even though European countries have higher standards of living — better incomes, employment rates and health care than Africa, South America or the West Indies.”

Black immigrants from Africa compose 16 percent of the U.S. foreign-born black population. Coming from countries with very small white populations, they are considerably more educated than other black immigrant groups to the U.S. However, the study’s findings took into account such factors and challenge previous studies that explain immigrants’ superior health status as a consequence of the selective nature of immigration — that those who immigrate have higher financial resources and health to make such a move.

In a report for Social Forces titled “Racial Context, Black Immigration and the U.S. Black/White Health Disparity,” Emerson and sociologist Jen’nan Ghazal Read from the University of California-Irvine present the first study that compares the health status of black immigrants by their region of birth, using new data on the 2000-2002 National Health Interview Surveys.

The researchers based the health status of black immigrants from Africa, the West Indies, South America and Europe and of U.S.-born blacks on several factors: their self-reported health; to what degree, if any, their activity was limited; and if they suffered from hypertension. They also took into account several social, demographic and immigrant characteristics typically thought to affect health, and they considered the length of the immigrants’ residency and U.S. citizenship.

“Ultimately, we believe that theories of immigrant selectivity don’t explain the entire difference in health status that we found between one black immigrant group and another,” Emerson says.

“What seems to be relevant to their health is the society in which they live, and those regions with smaller white populations seem to be less harmful to their health,” he concludes.

Courtesy of http://www.rice.edu