Rationale and objective: Research has documented a robust mental health advantage among Asian and Latino immigrants to the United States relative to the native-born. The current investigation extended this line of research, asking whether Middle Eastern immigrants to the United States enjoy a similar mental health advantage.
Methods: Drawing on pooled cross-sections from the 2007-2018 National Health Interview Surveys, we used OLS regression to examine psychological distress in Middle Eastern immigrants relative to both native-born Whites and immigrants from other global regions. We used statistical interactions to assess whether gender and period differences are contingent on region of birth.
Results: Findings reveal that the average level of psychological distress is higher among Middle Eastern immigrants than among both U.S.-born Whites and immigrants from other regions. Despite changing circumstances of migration for Middle Easterners and implementation in the United States of anti-immigrant policies, we see no evidence that distress increased more among immigrants compared to native-born Whites. Results point to greater psychological distress among Middle Eastern women than their native-born White counterparts and women from other immigrant groups, as well as Middle Eastern men. In contrast, psychological distress levels for Middle Eastern and native-born White men were indistinguishable, suggesting that the Middle Eastern mental health disadvantage in the United States is borne solely by women.
Conclusions: Results show that the mental health advantage enjoyed by some immigrant groups does not extend to Middle Eastern women, contradicting the healthy migrant model and challenging the assumption of a uniform mental health advantage across immigrant groups.
Keywords: Healthy migrant model; Kessler-6 index of psychological distress; Middle eastern immigrants; Middle eastern women.
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