To our knowledge, no study has examined the effect of immigration on the health of older natives. We use the Study of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to investigate whether immigration affects depression among natives 65–80 years old. Immigration may increase the supply and lower the price of personal and household services, a term that refers to care services and non-care services such as cleaning, meal preparation, and domestic chores. Higher consumption of personal and household services by older natives may help maintain health through a variety of pathways including reduced loneliness, greater participation in meaningful social activities, and improved physical functioning. Using a shift-share IV, we find a beneficial effect of immigration on reducing the number of depression symptoms and the probability of clinically significant depression among older natives. We also find some evidence for the hypothesized mechanisms. However, our ability to come to definitive conclusions about mechanisms is limited in our data.

据我们所知，没有任何研究调查过移民对老年人健康的影响。我们使用欧洲健康、老龄化和退休研究 (SHARE) 来调查移民是否会影响 65-80 岁本地人的抑郁症。移民可能会增加个人和家庭服务的供应并降低其价格，该术语指的是护理服务和非护理服务，例如清洁、准备膳食和家务劳动。老年人更多地消费个人和家庭服务可能有助于通过多种途径保持健康，包括减少孤独感、更多地参与有意义的社交活动以及改善身体机能。使用轮班共享 IV，我们发现移民对减少老年本地人的抑郁症状数量和临床上显着抑郁的可能性有有益的影响。我们还为假设的机制找到了一些证据。然而，我们对机制得出明确结论的能力在我们的数据中是有限的。