Refugees and immigrants being resettled in Australia on humanitarian grounds are known to have poorer health than other immigrants. Using data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Immigrants to Australia, the paper examines the influence of three measures of health - self-reported health status, the presence of a long-term health condition and mental health status - on the economic participation of humanitarian migrants. Multivariate logistic regression is used to control for other factors known to affect immigrants' economic participation, such as age, skills and English language proficiency, to see if health has an independent effect. The results show that migrants with poor physical health are less likely than migrants with good health to be in the work force. Mental health status affects the economic participation of male but not female migrants. The findings provide important empirical evidence of the significant role of health in the economic integration of migrants of refugee background. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007.

immigrants Labor force participation economic integration Health Refugees

refugee Australia Communication interpersonal communication mental health human Refugees middle aged statistics Cohort Studies Stress, Psychological mental stress comparative study health status Adaptation, Psychological Logistic Models language altruism Young Adult Humans Adolescent male Emigrants and Immigrants Acculturation female Socioeconomic Factors Multivariate Analysis adaptive behavior socioeconomics cultural factor Psychometrics psychometry Article adult migration cohort analysis statistical model employment