Studies have documented that age at immigration and generational status are important predictors of socioeconomic outcomes among children of immigrants. Whether these characteristics are related to long-term risk of death is unknown. Leveraging variation within sibships, we evaluated the association of age at immigration and generational status (i.e., first or second generation) with death among children of immigrant mothers to Sweden. Data included 272,429 individuals (126,701 sibships) aged 15 or more years from the total Swedish population followed between 1990 and 2009. Population-average and sibling fixed-effect regressions were estimated, with the latter controlling for unobserved factors shared by siblings. The foreign-born children of immigrants experienced a 17% higher risk of death than the Swedish-born children of immigrants. This excess risk was evident for external and nonexternal causes of death. In general, a graded association was not detected between age at immigration and death among the foreign-born individuals; however, those arriving during primary school ages appeared especially vulnerable. This study provides robust evidence that among children of immigrants, being foreign born was associated with a long-term death penalty compared with being born in the host country. © 2019 The Author(s).

Siblings emigrants and immigrants Death Acculturation

primary school controlled study age female human major clinical study immigrant Sweden punishment sibling cultural factor cause of death Article Swedish citizen immigration mother Child