Health disparities and community effects on health are attracting increasing attention. In the case of health disparities, there is particular interest in understanding why, in some populations, socio-economically disadvantaged immigrants have better health outcomes than more advantaged native-born residents (1). Possible explanations for this paradox include theories of acculturation and selective migration (the "healthy migrant effect") (2). At the same time, there is growing evidence that community characteristics influence individual outcomes (3). However, despite knowledge that immigrants are more often exposed to different community environments than native-born residents (4-5), surprisingly little is known about the influence of community characteristics on immigrant health. The paper by Anson J. in this issue addresses this important gap in the literature.

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controlled study environmental factor health status immigrant outcomes research socioeconomics community structure cultural factor Belgium Article mortality human migration