(Un)Healthy Immigrant Citizens: Naturalization and Activity Limitations in Older Age

• Published in: Journal of health and social behavior 2013-12, Vol.54 (4), p.427-443
• Main Authors: Gubernskaya, Zoya, Bean, Frank D., Van Hook, Jennifer
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acculturation; Activities of Daily Living; Activities of Daily Living - psychology; Adolescent; Adult; Age; Age Factors; Aged; Aging - physiology; Aging - psychology; Attrition (Research Studies); Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child, Preschool; Children; Chronic Disease - ethnology; Chronic Disease - psychology; Citizens; Citizenship; Community Relations; Community Surveys; Elderly; Emigrants and Immigrants - psychology; Emigration and Immigration - legislation & jurisprudence; Emigration and Immigration - statistics & numerical data; Emigration and Immigration - trends; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Geriatrics; Health; Health Behavior; Health care inequality; Health care policy; Health Problems; Health Services for the Aged - standards; Health Services Needs and Demand - statistics & numerical data; Health Status Disparities; Health Status Indicators; Hispanics; Human migration; Humans; Hypotheses; Illness and personality; Immigrants; Inclusive education; Infant; Interviews as Topic; Life course; Logistic Models; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Midlife; Migration; Naturalization; Noncitizens; Older adults; Older people; Paradoxes; Personality, behavior and health; Population; Psychology and medicine; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Public Policy; Social Contexts, Health, and Well Being; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomic Status; Studies; United States - epidemiology; Welfare Reform; Welfare Services; Work Experience; Young Adult; Young Adults
• ISSN: 0022-1465; 2150-6000
• DOI: 10.1177/0022146513504760

This research argues that immigrants' political, social, and economic incorporation experiences, which are embedded in individual life course trajectories and heavily influenced by governmental policies, play an important role in producing diverse health outcomes among older U.S. foreign-born persons. Using data from the 2008-2010 American Community Survey and 1998-2010 Integrated Health Interview Series, we demonstrate how naturalization, a key indicator of social and political inclusion, is related to functional health in midlife and older age. Consistent with the theoretical framework, we find that among those foreign-born who immigrated as children and young adults, naturalized citizens show better health at older ages compared with noncitizens, although this relationship is partly mediated by education. But among those older foreign-born who immigrated at middle and older ages, naturalized citizens report worse health compared with noncitizens. Moreover, this negative health selection into naturalization becomes stronger for those naturalizing after the 1996 Welfare Reform Act.