title: Association between Integration Policies and Immigrants' Mortality: An Explorative Study across Three European Countries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To integrate immigrants into their societies, European countries have adopted different types of policies, which may influence health through both material and psychosocial determinants. Recent studies have suggested poorer health outcomes for immigrants living in countries with poorly rated integration policies.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To analyse mortality differences of immigrants from the same country of origin living in countries with distinct integration policy contexts.
  
  
  METHODS
  From the mortality dataset collected in the Migrant Ethnic Health Observatory (MEHO) project, we chose the Netherlands (linked data from 1996-2006), France (unlinked; 2005-2007) and Denmark (linked; 1992-2001) as representatives of the inclusive, assimilationist and exclusionist policy models, respectively, based on the Migrant Integration Policy Index. We calculated for each country sex- and age-standardized mortality rates for Turkish-, Moroccan- and local-born populations aged 20-69 years. Poisson regression was used to estimate the mortality rate ratios (MRRs) for cross-country and within-country comparisons. The analyses were further stratified by age group and cause of death.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with their peers in the Netherlands, Turkish-born immigrants had higher all-cause mortality in Denmark (MRR men 1.92; 95% CI 1.74-2.13 and women 2.11; 1.80-2.47) but lower in France (men 0.64; 0.59-0.69 and women 0.58; 0.51-0.67). A similar pattern emerged for Moroccan-born immigrants. The relative differences between immigrants and the local-born population were also largest in Denmark and lowest in France (e.g., Turkish-born men MRR 1.52; 95% CI 1.38-1.67 and 0.62; 0.58-0.66, respectively). These patterns were consistent across all age groups, and more marked for cardiovascular diseases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although confounders and data comparability issues (e.g., French cross-sectional data) may affect the findings, this study suggests that different macro-level policy contexts may influence immigrants' mortality. Comparable mortality registration systems across Europe along with detailed socio-demographic information on immigrants may help to better assess this association.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Umar Z
authors.initials: UZ
authors.lastname: Ikram
authors.affiliation: Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona (IIB-Sant Pau), Barcelona, Spain; CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Malmusi
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Knud
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Juel
authors.affiliation: INSERM, CépiDc, Le Kremlin-Bicxtre, France.
authors.forename: Grégoire
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rey
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anton E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Kunst
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D062309:Community Integration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality / Q000208:ethnology*