The Impact of the Salmon Bias on the Migrant Mortality Advantage: New Evidence Using French Pension Data
The migrant mortality advantage (MMA) has been observed in many immigrant-receiving countries, but its underlying factors remain poorly understood. This paper examines the role of out-migration selection effects (the “salmon bias” hypothesis) in explaining the MMA, using a rich, unique data set from France in which individuals are followed worldwide (including when they leave the country) until they die. This data set, which involves individuals receiving a pension from France’s most important pension fund, provides a rare opportunity to directly observe out-migration selection effects and their impact on the migrant mortality advantage. Results suggest a large and systematic amount of negative out-migration selection for foreign-born elderly males in France.
Michel Guillot is Professor of Sociology at University of Pennsylvania and Senior Researcher at the French Institute for Demographic Research (INED). His research is organised primarily around two main areas: (1) formal demography; and (2) understanding health disparities across and within populations. In the area of formal demography,he has designed new methodologies for better understanding mortality levels and trends, and for studying their impact on population growth and ageing. Michel has also also made contributions in the area of model age patterns of mortality and indirect estimation methods. In the area of health disparities,he has examined the burden of disease among the global poor. He has also studied the health of vulnerable ethnic, religious, and migrant groups in a range of populations, including India. A related interest has been the analysis of the health crisis in the former Soviet Union, with a special focus on the Central Asia region.