The Health of Black Immigrants in the United States and Comparisons with Countries of Origin

The proposed project will enhance our understanding of adult health and birth outcomes among black immigrants in the United States by region and country of birth. Black immigrants constitute a small but growing share of recent immigration flows. The vast majority of Blacks come to the United States from the Caribbean and from Africa. By 2005-2010, foreign-born Blacks made up just over eight percent of the U.S. Black population up from less than one percent in 1960. We have identified two widely used US data sources that will permit the analysis of Black immigrant health outcomes by region and /or country of birth in the United States. These include the 2000-2010 waves of the National Health Interview Survey and vital statistics birth record data. The vital statistics data will be used to examine birth outcomes by region and country of birth and the NHIS will be used to examine adult health outcomes by region and/or country of birth sample size permitting. To assess the role of migrant selectivity we compare health outcomes of Black immigrants to those in their countries or regions of origin utilizing data from the Demographic and Health Surveys and the WHO/SAGE Wave 1 data from Ghana. These analyses will be used to inform study design and data collection in immigrant sending communities in Ghana and among Ghanaian immigrants in the United States.