Do migrants always live longer than natives? Finnish migrants in Sweden

Authors: Olof Östergren (Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University; Aging Research Center [ARC], Karolinska Institutet), Kaarina Korhonen (pulation Research Unit, University of Helsinki), Agneta Cederström (Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University), and Pekka Martikainen (Population Research Unit, University of Helsinki; The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research)

In France, immigrants have a lower mortality risk than the native-born population—a seemingly surprising outcome given that they generally come from more socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. One reason for this is that migrants are among the healthier individuals in their countries of origin. Do we observe the same paradox when immigrants and natives are born in similar countries? This is the question Olof Östergren and his colleagues ask as they examine the mortality risk of Finnish immigrants in Sweden.

International migrants tend to have lower mortality rates than resident populations, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as the migrant mortality advantage. But this is not always the case. Migrants’ health depends on factors both at their places of origin and destination. Finnish migrant men living in Sweden have total mortality rates falling between those of the Finnish and Swedish populations. Migrant women, however, have slightly higher total mortality than both populations. However, their alcohol- and smoking-related mortality levels lie between those of Swedes and Finns. Overall, migrants’ health behaviours are influenced, positively or negatively, by social conditions at both origin and destination.

Published on: 26/07/2023