Do New Zealand's immigrants have a mortality advantage? Evidence from the New Zealand Census-Mortality Study.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine all-cause mortality differentials among New Zealand's (NZ) immigrant population. Unlike other studies that use the total non-migrant population as the reference group, we use NZ-born populations of the same ethnic group for comparison purposes. Our study intends to answer two questions: first, do immigrants have a mortality advantage relative to their NZ-born counterparts of the same ethnicity? Second, does an immigrant mortality advantage, if one exists, decline as duration of residence increases? DESIGN: Data from the New Zealand Census-Mortality Study from 1996-1999 and 2001-2004 were used. The main variable of interest, years of residence in NZ, was classified as li..