The Science of Health: The Ethnic Health Advantage; October 2011; Scientific American Magazine; by Laura Blue; 2 Page(s)

For decades scholars and public health officials have known that people with greater income or formal education tend to live longer and enjoy better health than their counterparts who have less money or schooling. The trend holds true wherever researchers look—in poor countries or rich ones, in Europe, Asia or the Americas—but two notable exceptions stand out.

One is known as the healthy immigrant effect. Looked at as a group, immigrants to countries as diverse as the U.S., Australia, Germany and Canada live longer than their new native-born neighbors. Yet immigrants also tend to be less well educated and are often more likely to live in poverty in those countries.