Life Expectancy Among US-born and Foreign-born Older Adults in the United States: Estimates From Linked Social Security and Medicare Data

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Neil Mehta, Emory University; Irma T. Elo, University of Pennsylvania; Michal Engelman, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Diane S. Lauderdale, University of Chicago; Bert M. Kestenbaum, Social Security Administration
• Language: English
• Date: 2016-08-01
• Publisher: Springer
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2016, Population Association of America.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13524-016-0488-4
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Demography
• ISSN: 0070-3370
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 4
• Start Page: 1109
• End Page: 1134
• Grant/Funding Information: Neil Mehta received support from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Loan Repayment Program (1L60MD006408).; Michal Engelman is supported by core grants to the Center for Demography and Ecology (P2C HD047873) and to the Center for Demography of Health and Aging (P30 AG017266) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.; Irma Elo received support from the Population Aging Research Center, University of Pennsylvania—NIA P30 AG012836.
• Keywords: Medicare; Social Sciences; HISPANIC MORTALITY ADVANTAGE; PARADOX; ACCULTURATION; NATIVE-BORN; SELECTION; HEALTH; MEXICO; Life expectancy; Immigration; Demography; MIGRATION; Mortality; Social Security; ETHNICITY; IMMIGRANTS
• Research Categories: Sociology, General; Health Sciences, Public Health

Abstract

In recent decades, the geographic origins of America’s foreign-born population have become increasingly diverse. The sending countries of the U.S. foreign-born vary substantially in levels of health and economic development, and immigrants have arrived with distinct distributions of socioeconomic status, visa type, year of immigration, and age at immigration. We use high-quality linked Social Security and Medicare records to estimate life tables for the older U.S. population over the full range of birth regions. In 2000–2009, the foreign-born had a 2.4-year advantage in life expectancy at age 65 relative to the U.S.-born, with Asian-born subgroups displaying exceptionally high longevity. Foreign-born individuals who migrated more recently had lower mortality compared with those who migrated earlier. Nonetheless, we also find remarkable similarities in life expectancy among many foreign-born subgroups that were born in very different geographic and socioeconomic contexts (e.g., Central America, western/eastern Europe, and Africa).