Re-examining the selection and acculturation effects on immigrants’ health: An analysis of overweight among immigrants in France and Spain

Recent studies on immigrants’ health shed light on the importance of selection and acculturation processes, but also point out differences according to the country of origin. We study how differences in overweight between natives and immigrants can vary according to birthplace, country of arrival, acculturation, and socioeconomic status. Based on national health interview surveys in Spain and France, we use probit estimations and a Blinder-Oaxaca type of decomposition adequate for binary data model to distinguish the part of the overweight difference that is explained by individual characteristics from the part explained by differences in coefficients. Our results show a ‘healthy immigrant effect’ for men in Spain but a higher likelihood of being overweight among women immigrants regardless of the country of arrival. Our results suggest that birthplace and acculturation as measured by citizenship status are the main explanation for these effects. Our decomposition results reveal that the difference of overweight prevalence between women natives and immigrants is mainly explained by differences in coefficients indicating a specific pattern of immigrant overweight.