ARCHIVED – Health Status and Social Capital of Recent Immigrants in Canada: Evidence from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada

Introduction

Between 2001 and 2006, roughly 1.2 million immigrants landed in Canada. Given that immigrants represent a large proportion – two-thirds – of Canada’s population growth (CIC 2007), immigrant health status is of particular interest to researchers, policy-makers and program officials. Lack of data have limited Canadian research on the disparities among immigration sub-groups such as family class immigrants, economic class immigrants, and refugees (Zhao 2007a). This paper addresses this gap through econometric analyses. Its purpose is to look at the dynamic changes in the health status of recent immigrants in the initial years in Canada, focusing particularly on the effect of social capital on immigrant health. 

This paper undertakes to answer the following questions:

• Does the health status of recent immigrants in Canada change over the initial four years after landing?
• Is there any disparity of health status among different immigrant sub-groups?
• Are there main social factors associated with the health status of recent immigrants?
• To what extent does social capital, embedded in social networks, affect the health status of recent immigrants?  

The paper proceeds as follows. After a literature review on the concept of social capital, the data sources and indicators used in the analysis are described. The next sections present the descriptive analysis, the econometric models, and finally the regression results, followed by discussion. The conclusion summarizes the main findings and discusses some policy implications of the research.

• Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3 (current)
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10
• 11
• 12
• Next