Economic Development of Origin

This article reexamines the healthy immigrant effect in mental health—as measured by psychological distress—by incorporating the modifying roles of the level of economic development of origin-country and life-stage at arrival among a sample of immigrants to Toronto, Canada—as compared to the native-born. The analytic sample included 2,157 adults, of which 31 percent were immigrants. Multivariate results point to a healthy immigrant effect in distress, but only among immigrants from less developed origin-countries who migrated to Canada in mid-adulthood (between 25 and 34 years of age). Further, this health advantage deteriorates with increase in length of residence only among this group of migrants, in large part because of an increase in chronic stressors. Immigrants from more developed origin-countries do not experience a healthy immigrant effect, as compared to the native-born, nor an increase in distress with tenure in Canada, irrespective of the life-stage at immigration