“Americanization” May Hurt Black Immigrants’ Health

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

Michael Emerson

The study, conducted by sociologists Michael Emerson from Rice and Jen’nan Ghazal Read from the University of California–Irvine presents the first research to compare the health status of black immigrants by their region of birth, using new data from the 2000–02 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. The researchers 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.

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 United States. 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 better health to make such a move.

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

Black people who immigrate to the United States 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. After they have lived in the United States for a while, however, Emerson says, their health advantage erodes as they and their children begin to suffer the consequences of being black in America.

“‘Americanization’ may actually be hurting black immigrants’ health,” Emerson says. “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.”

The research was reported in “Racial Context, Black Immigration, and the U.S. Black/White Health Disparity,” published in Social Forces.