Health Assimilation Patterns Amongst Australian Immigrants*

Abstract

This paper compares the health of Australian immigrants with that of the Australian‐born population and examines the extent to which differences vary with time since migration. Health is measured using self‐reports of chronic diseases from three national health surveys. Probit models are used to estimate the health effects of immigrant arrival cohorts, years since migration and country of birth. We find that the health of Australian immigrants is better than the Australian‐born population, but the longer immigrants spend in Australia, the closer their health approximates that of the Australian‐born population. There are variations for different immigrant groups and for particular chronic diseases.