title: Does helping them benefit me? Examining the emotional cost and benefit of immigrants' pecuniary remittance behaviour in Canada.
abstract: The existing literature has largely focused on how immigrants' pre/post-migration experiences affect their health in destination societies. Hence, little is known about the extent to which immigrants' choice to maintain transnational ties to their family and friends abroad influences their health. This study makes a theoretical and empirical contribution to the sociology of health literature by examining how immigrants' pecuniary remittance behaviour affects their emotional health using data from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC, 2001-2005). Our weighted logistic regression analyses demonstrate that sending remittances within the first six months of arrival predisposes immigrants to emotional health problems. However, remitting after six months of arrival provides an "emotional advantage" for immigrants, but this advantage is greater for female immigrants compared to their male counterparts. The study clearly shows that immigrants' remittance behaviour has far reaching gendered implications on their emotional health, which underscores the importance of including transnational theory and gender in the conceptual toolbox for explaining immigrants' health transitions. Admittedly, insights from this study can help professional healthcare staff, and immigrant settlement and integration agency workers better understand and address the mental health needs of immigrants in order to enhance their contribution to the Canadian economy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Western Ontario, Room 5333, Social Science Centre, London, Ontario, N6A 5C2, Canada. Electronic address: jamoyaw@uwo.ca.
authors.forename: Jonathan Anim
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Amoyaw
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Western Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: tabada@uwo.ca.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Abada
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004644:Emotions; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology; D006379:Helping Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: Canada; Emotional health; Gender; Immigrants; Remittance