Partnership Status and Mortality across Migration Generations: Evidence from Sweden

Agostino Cristofalo , Sapienza University of Rome
Sven Drefahl, Stockholm University
Eleonora Mussino, Umeå University
Eleonora Trappolini, University of Milan-Bicocca

Partnered (i.e., married and cohabitant) individuals live longer than their unpartnered (never married, separated, and widowed) counterparts. This mortality advantage depends on selection and protection mechanisms and has been shown to vary across population subgroups – by age, sex, socioeconomic status, living arrangements. In this study, we investigate whether and how the mortality advantage of being partnered differs across migration generation – i.e., natives, first-generation (G1), and second-generation (G2) migrants – and area of origin. We do so by drawing on Swedish population register data for the years 2012-2022 and applying Gompertz hazard regression models to model all-cause mortality between ages 18-79. Our findings confirm a mortality advantage of partnered – particularly married – individuals relative to never-married, separated, and widowed individuals, across natives and migrant groups. For G1 migrants, the advantage against unpartnered groups is broadly lower, except for widowed G1 men, who face a greater mortality disadvantage relative to native widowers. Concerning G2 migrants, we find a larger mortality advantage against never married and separated men, while no differences in the extent of the advantage for women. Patterns are consistent when disaggregating groups by area of origin, with some notable exceptions for G1 migrants from Finland. We suggest that the heterogeneity in the magnitude of the mortality advantage stems from differences in the extent to which selection and protection mechanisms apply across migrant generations, as well as compositional differences by area of origin.

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 Presented in Session P4. Migration, Migrants, and Mobility