ABSTRACT

The research literature has pointed to an infant health paradox among new immigrants to the United States. High-risk groups, particularly low-income immigrants from Mexico and Southeast Asia, show unexpectedly favorable perinatal outcomes and seem to be “superior health achievers”. Immigrant women overall were much less likely than the native-born to be in the labor force during their pregnancies: less than a quarter, compared to 42% of the US-born. Among the immigrants, this was especially the case among the Indochinese refugees, while Central American immigrant women were more likely to be in the job market than any other foreign-born group. The foregoing has documented significant differences in a wide range of maternal risk factors by nativity and ethnicity for the pregnant women in the Comprehensive Perinatal Program sample. A maximum-likelihood logistic regression analysis on this dichotomized dependent variable identified ten variables as significant determinants of infant health outcomes.