The aim of the study is to compare health outcomes of migrants and the native German population, testing for the existence of a Healthy Immigrant Effect (HIE). The study contributes a broad theoretical analysis of the HIE and makes use of a wide spectrum of variables to model health (using the SF-12). The HIE is marked by an observed health advantage for migrants, when compared to the host population, which declines with the years since migration. Assessing different types of selection processes, it is assumed that mass migration to post-industrial countries is characterized by favouring the inflow of healthy individuals from weaker economies working in the low-wage sector due to the cost aspect of migration and differences in wages for adequate work. Socioeconomic and -structural differences of migrant and host population as well as psychosocial stressors like acculturation cause the deteroriation of the health adavantage with increasing years since migration. Using cross-sectional data from the 2016 wave of the Socio-Economic Panel this study compares health outcomes (generated from the SF-12) between recent migrants (≤ 10 years since migration), non-recent migrants (> 10 years since migration) and the German native population. Propensity score matching analyses reveal a health advantage for recent migrants compared to non-recent migrants as well as to the German native population, while non-recent migrants remain statistically indistinguishable from the native German population, implying a health assimilation effect.

Measurement problems in terms of different understanding of the meaning, concepts and implications of survey questions as well as tendencies to different response-sets (e.g. acquiescence or social desirability) are reoccurring problems in comparative migration research. Cultural factors, time-varying effects and survey design lead to response biases. It could be shown that depending on the region of origin, migrants tend to extreme or centred responding behaviour. Macroscale changes in attitudes towards disclosure of personal information influence acquiescent biases. Therefore, the question arises whether the presence of measurement equivalence can be assumed, especially within instruments regarding subjective feelings, when comparing migrant and native populations. The aim of the study is to test for intercultural and longitudinal equivalence of the Health Short Form 12 - items scale (SF -12), trying to answer the question whether this instrument is useful to compare health of migrants and native Germans over time. The study contributes to the ongoing discussion on measurement equivalence of the SF -12 by including variables concerning integration and assimilation, employment, family status and varying types of migration and years since migration to the analysis. Using a Multiple Group Structural Equation Modelling approach analyzing longitudinal data of the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP), we test the validity and measurement equivalence (configural, metric and scalar invariance) of the latent construct ‘health’ over time and between (non-)migration groups. In addition, different item functioning can be detected for a series of covariates. The study concludes in recommending a reduced version of the SF-12 to improve the avoidance of measurement artefacts when comparing the health of migrants and native Germans.

Response-sets belong to reoccurring problems in migration research. Cultural factors, time-varying effects and survey design lead to response biases. It could be shown that depending on the region of origin, migrants tend to extreme or centred responding behaviour. Macroscale changes in attitudes towards disclosure of personal information influence acquiescent biases. Therefore, the question arises whether the presence of measurement equivalence can be assumed, especially within instruments regarding subjective feelings, when differences between migrant and native populations are the variable of interest. The aim of the study is to test for intercultural and longitudinal equivalence of the Short Form 12 - items scale (SF -12), trying to answer the question whether this instrument is useful to compare health of migrants and native Germans over time. The study contributes to the ongoing discussion on measurement equivalence of the SF -12 by including variables concerning integration and assimilation, employment, family status and varying types of migration and years since migration to the analysis. Using longitudinal data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP) and a Structural Equation Modelling approach, Different Item Functioning can be detected for a series of covariates. The study concludes in recommending a reduced version of the SF-12 to improve the avoidance of measurement artefacts when comparing the health of migrants and native Germans.

Die Untersuchung gesundheitlicher Ungleichheiten bei Migranten ist aufgrund der sozioökonomischen, institutionellen und kulturellen Heterogenität der Herkunftsländer und des Aufnahmelandes Deutschland ein komplexes Thema. Diese Dissertation untersucht die körperliche und psychische Gesundheit verschiedener Migrantengruppen in Deutschland und konzentriert sich dabei auf den Healthy Migrant Effect (HME) und dessen Variationen. Anhand von Daten des Sozioökonomischen Panels werden Migranten aus europäischen und außereuropäischen Ländern, Binnenmigranten und einheimische Deutsche miteinander verglichen. Die Ergebnisse deuten auf einen anfänglichen Gesundheitsvorteil für Migranten hin, der sich im Laufe der Zeit verringert und von ihren Herkunftsländern beeinflusst wird. Darüber hinaus wird die Messinvarianz des SF-12-Gesundheitssurveys zwischen diesen Gruppen über einen Zeitraum von 12 Jahren bewertet, wobei eine akzeptable Invarianz festgestellt wird, jedoch darauf hingewiesen wird, dass die Nichtberücksichtigung der skalaren Invarianz Gesundheitsvergleiche verzerren kann. Schließlich wird untersucht, wie sozioökonomische Herausforderungen, wie z. B. der berufliche Status, zu den gesundheitlichen Unterschieden zwischen Migranten und Einheimischen beitragen, wobei komplexe Wechselwirkungen zwischen anfänglichem Gesundheitszustand, Veränderungen im Laufe der Zeit, Herkunftsregion und Geschlecht aufgedeckt werden. Diese Erkenntnisse unterstreichen die Notwendigkeit von Maßnahmen, die den Zugang zur Gesundheitsversorgung, die Arbeitsbedingungen und den Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt für Migranten verbessern, um gesundheitliche Ungleichheiten zu verringern. Nach einer kurzen Einleitung gebe ich einen Überblick über die in dieser Dissertation behandelten Forschungsfragen. Anschließend werde ich die thematischen und empirischen Verbindungen zwischen den Kapiteln zusammenfassen. In Kapitel 1 wird die Rolle der Selektion beim Healthy Migrant Effect untersucht. Kapitel 2 untersucht die longitudinale und kulturübergreifende Messinvarianz der physischen und psychischen Gesundheit. In Kapitel 3 wird untersucht, wie die berufliche Position Unterschiede im Gesundheitsverlauf zwischen Einheimischen und Migranten erklären kann. Abschließend fasse ich die Kapitel der Dissertation zusammen und diskutiere die Implikationen für Politik und Forschung.