5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

Research on health inequality shows that even though immigrants demonstrate a health advantage when arriving at their new destinations, this advantage erodes over time. Explanations about this phenomenon indicate that immigrants are protected by their health behaviors at their time of arrival in part because of factors related to health selection, yet, as they adapt to the new environment, they adopt new health behaviors that are negative for their health (e.g., smoking, poor diets). Health selection, protection, and Acculturation have been central frameworks for understanding the evolution of immigrant health. However, by stressing individual behaviors, we ignore structural factors that may also impact health. Structural forces like xenophobia and racism against immigrants, immigration and public health policies, as well as state classification systems that determine immigrants’ eligibility for tangible and intangible resources, are often overlooked factors that can contribute to health inequalities.

This session seeks papers that investigate the interaction of structural forces and immigrants’ social, cultural, and economic characteristics as determinants of health. We are particularly interested in investigations examining how these disadvantages may accumulate over the life course. Specifically, how differential exposure to marginalization, social exclusion, and discrimination may lead to stress-responses that can impact immigrants’ health.