An Investigation of Afro-Caribbean and Black Sub-Saharan African Immigrant  Health in the United States

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/1g05fd240

Abstract

The immigrant population of the United States is increasingly diversifying. Black immigrants represent a large segment of this growing population and contribute largely to the growth of the American Black population. Despite this growth, Black immigrants remain largely underrepresented in immigrant health literature. This dissertation addresses this gap in the literature in three ways. First, it explicitly examines the role of national or regional origin on the health of Black adult migrants hailing from the Caribbean and Africa. Second, it examines the importance of time in the health outcomes of Black immigrants by considering time since arrival to the United States and arrival cohort. To do this, I employ cohort-stratified models to examine health at different duration points. Finally, it investigates the moderating role of sex in the relationship between national origin and health outcomes. To do this, I draw upon literature on the immigrant health advantage, racial context of origin, and cumulative (dis)advantage theory. Findings suggest that there is noteworthy variation in the health of Black immigrants. This variation exists at the national-origin level and differs across health outcomes.

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