In Germany there are 16 million people with a migration background, one in five of the total population. There are relatively few migrant mortality studies in Germany, which is primarily due to the restricted quantity and quality of existing data. The official migrant death statistics for Germany suffer from incomplete migrant population stock data due to non-registered remigration events. After the German census in 2011 especially the migrant stock data was adjusted downwards, and therefore realistic estimates of the migrant mortality risk and the healthy-migrant-effect are possible. Between 2010 and 2013 mortality risks of foreigners rose strongly due to the census corrections of the migrant population. However, the risks for adults and pensioners still lie below the risks for Germans in the same age groups. The lower risks indicate a healthy-migrant-effect, whicht was primarily effective shortly after the immigration event. Analysis based on data from the Statutory Pension Insurance (GRV) shows higher migrant mortality risks in the age group from 65 to 84. In that age group there are supposedly a lot of people, who immigrated to Germany in the context of the guest worker recruitment in the 1950s to 1970s and who had hard working conditions in their lifetimes. Their mortality risk, therefore, increased in the long-term perspective. In the future the lack of data in the migrant population will again rise due to unregistered remigration. Alternative databases need to be used for migrant mortality analyses. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015.

Migration 2011 German census Causes of death Healthy-migrant-effect Mortality

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