UCLA International Institute

At the same time that health researchers have mostly ignored the potential for immigrant social networks to include cross-border ties, scholars of immigrant “transnationalism” have left health, as either cause or consequence of cross-border connections, largely unexamined. In this paper I take a step towards addressing this gap by first exploring the potential mechanisms linking cross-border ties to health outcomes for immigrants and their children in the 1.5 and 2^nd generations. I then perform an analysis using the 2004 study of Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles (IIMMLA), which includes data for 1273 young Latino adults from the 1.5 and 2^nd immigrant generations. In ordered logistic regression models using a four-category measure of self-rated general health status, I find that those in the 1.5 generation who report simply having a close relative living in one’s country of origin are 76% more likely to have better health overall health status compared with those with no potential cross-border connection, all else equal. On the other hand, those reporting a period of parental cross-border separation during childhood are 40% less likely to report optimal health in a multivariate model; similar findings of a negative relationship between health and parental cross-border separation are observed for the 2^nd generation. Also among the 2^nd generation, those who indicate that their parents ever remitted money to their country of origin are 43% more likely to report better health status, even when considering a number of statistical controls. Given the findings of a significant relationship between several indicators of cross-border ties and self-rated general health status, albeit in varying directions, I discuss the implications for future research as relates to the social determinants of immigrant health outcomes.