Selection and Stratification – the Educational Gradient of Health in Post-Migration Contexts
However, the so-called “health advantages” of migrants are contingent upon what the origin and destination country used. In the United States, migrants have been found to have better self-reported health (Antman et al., 2020). In contrast, the evidence from Europe is less consistent (Moullan & Jusot, 2014; Nielsen & Krasnik, 2010). This paper seeks to explore how social and structural factors influence the variation in results.
Education is recognised as one of the most significant determinants of health, but it is also a key factor in determining migration decisions (Feliciano, 2020). As such, scholars argue that migrants' health advantage may reflect their educational rank – thus, placement on the educational gradient of health – in the origin country (Ichou & Wallace, 2019). That is, considering socioeconomic status before migration in explaining post-migration “paradoxes”. However, there is considerable variation in the educational selection of migrants across Europe (Schmidt et al., 2022). Perhaps the variation in educational selection underlies the variation in the “healthy migrant effect” across Europe?
We utilise the survey data from the European Social Survey (ESS) to construct a cross-classified multilevel model. As such, disentangle the (1) origin country effect, (2) destination country effects and (3) combination effect. Furthermore, we introduce a measurement of the educational selection constructed using the Barro-Lee dataset. With this, the average effects of selection on health outcomes and trajectories of migrants from the same origin across different destination countries are assessed.