Transnational ties, endowment with capital, and health of immigrants in Germany: cross-sectional study

Maintaining transnational ties may be an indication of poor integration into the host society (according to classical ‘assimilation theory’) or may convey additional capital resources to immigrants (the ‘transmigrant’ view of migration). Consequences for health would be negative in the first and positive in the second scenario. We tested the hypotheses that (1) maintaining transnational ties may lead to unfavourable health outcomes via outflow of resources and (2) transnational ties convey additional resources, thereby leading to improved health outcomes. An alternative hypothesis (3) is that the different forms of capital are an intermediate variable in the association between transnational ties and resource flows on the one hand and health on the other (mediation).

We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Transnationality was measured by “financial transfers to country of origin”, “personal relations”, “transnational identification”, and “cultural practices”. Capital was measured as follows: economic: income; cultural: education; social: visits by friends, membership in associations. Logistic regression was used to assess determinants of low satisfaction with health (outcome), adjusting for age, sex, and socio-economic status, considering capital endowment.

We found no evidence that immigrants who maintain close transnational ties (personal contact/sending remittances) to their country of origin are not sufficiently “integrated” into German society and will hence experience worse health (assimilation theory). However, they do not experience major health benefits from maintaining transnational ties either.