The future of American longevity will be increasingly influenced by immigration, as migrants and their children represent a growing share of the US population. While migrants typically have lower levels of mortality than their US-born counterparts, this is not always the case, as evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this talk, I demonstrate that immigration has large and demographically meaningful effects on national mortality patterns and inequalities in mortality. I introduce a theoretical framework that explains why we observe these divergent outcomes and provide empirical evidence in support of the argument that risk–both individual risk-taking and systemic risk–is a central determinant of mortality for the foreign-born and native-born populations.
Dr. Arun Hendi is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs with joint affiliations in The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the Office of Population Research. His research uses demographic methods to study socioeconomic and racial inequalities in life expectancy and health; changing trends in marriage, divorce, and assortative mating; and population dynamics in cities and rural areas. His current projects include an examination of how and why black life expectancy in the United States improved over the last quarter century and an analysis of how population flows between urban, suburban, and rural areas influence health and well-being.