Effects of Immigration and Age on Health of Older People in the United States

Following cumulative advantage/disadvantage theory and drawing longitudinal data from the 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006 Health and Retirement Studies, this article examined the relationship between immigration experience and health transitions in late life among non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Mexicans in the United States. The results revealed that the timing of migration in the life course helped determine the ways in which individual health transitions would be associated with their aging process, and the pathways would be complex and vary based on the health outcomes and gender of the immigrants. For example, among women, the later-life immigrants would face most disadvantageous health trajectories as they aged with respect to activities of daily living limitations. The results suggested that the timing of U. S. immigration would affect the degree to which immigrants could take advantage of economic opportunities to accumulate financial resources that would benefit health later in life.