Afulani Patience A, Torres Jacqueline M, Sudhinaraset May, Asunka Joseph
School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, United States.
Center for Health and Community, University of California, San Francisco, United States.
Soc Sci Med. 2016 Nov;168:63-71. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.09.009. Epub 2016 Sep 9.
Recent scholarship has focused on the role that cross-border social and economic ties play in shaping health outcomes for migrant populations. Nevertheless, the extant empirical work on this topic has paid little attention to the health impacts of cross-border separation from close family members. In this paper we examine the association between cross-border ties-and cross-border separation-with the health of sub-Saharan African (SSA) migrant adults living in metropolitan France using data from the nationally representative "Trajectoire et Origines" survey (n = 1980 SSA migrants). In logistic regression analyses we find that remitting money and having a child abroad are each associated with poor health among women, but not men. The effect of remittances on health is also modified by the location of one's children: remittance sending is associated with poor health only for SSA-migrants separated from their children. These findings underscore the importance of examining both cross-border connection and cross-border separation in studies of immigrant health, and also underscore the heterogeneous relationships between cross-border ties and health for men and women. This is the first study to our knowledge that examines the relationship between cross-border ties and health for migrants in Europe, with a focus on SSA-migrants in France. These findings have important implications for the health of the growing immigrant and refugee populations in Europe and around the globe.
近期的学术研究聚焦于跨境社会和经济联系在塑造移民群体健康结果方面所起的作用。然而，关于这一主题的现有实证研究很少关注与亲密家庭成员跨境分离对健康的影响。在本文中，我们利用具有全国代表性的“轨迹与出身”调查（n = 1980名撒哈拉以南非洲移民）的数据，研究跨境联系以及跨境分离与居住在法国大都市的撒哈拉以南非洲（SSA）成年移民健康之间的关联。在逻辑回归分析中，我们发现，寄钱和在国外有孩子这两个因素在女性中均与健康状况不佳相关，但在男性中并非如此。汇款对健康的影响还因子女所在地点而有所不同：只有与子女分离的撒哈拉以南非洲移民，寄钱才与健康状况不佳相关。这些发现强调了在移民健康研究中同时考察跨境联系和跨境分离的重要性，也凸显了跨境联系与男性和女性健康之间的异质性关系。据我们所知，这是第一项研究欧洲移民跨境联系与健康之间关系的研究，重点关注法国的撒哈拉以南非洲移民。这些发现对欧洲及全球不断增长的移民和难民群体的健康具有重要意义。
