The High Health Cost of Immigration

Heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. The triple threat of health conditions. You can’t click on an Internet browser, watch TV, read a newspaper or magazine without seeing an article about these maladies and how to treat, prevent, or medicate your way to normalcy. With the increase of obesity in the United States, the path of self-destruction is lined with forks, knives and fast-food styrofoam carry-out containers.

Immigrants coming to the United States for a chance at a better life and opportunity are finding that the good life comes with some unexpected dangers. Life in the United States is often different in every way from their home country. Where fresh foods and healthy diets were part of their culture and kept them strong and fit, healthy habits give way to the realities of acclimating to their new U.S. way of life. With new homes, jobs and lifestyles come a new way of eating.

Like many Americans with busy lives, two-career households and growing families, mealtime is often centered on what’s easy and accessible. Too often, it’s the fast-food, prepackaged, high-fat, salt and sugar diet most Americans take for granted. “The Health Toll of Immigration,” from the New York Times, tells a story of a different kind of healthcare dilemma. Instead of poverty and need, these new immigrants get caught up in an unhealthy lifestyle because they have jobs and busy lives. 

The change in lifestyle is taking a serious toll on life expectancy. According to Robert Hummer, a social demographer at the University of Texas in Austin, there is something about life in the United States that is not conducive to good health. In fact, several studies have found that Hispanic immigrants’ foreign-born counterparts live an average of three years longer. 

Immigrants who come to the United States can take advantage of the country’s superior healthcare systems, but they also adopt the bad habits—smoking, drinking and a diet high in fat, salt, sugar, calories and processed food. Children get used to foods that taste sweeter and lose their taste for bland staples from their native countries.

The U.S. is a country of the super-size. Food portions have grown since the 1950s, and so have Americans’ waistlines. Food that tastes good and has an addictive effect due to higher sugar and fat content, are hard to pass up. 

With both parents working, who wants to cook? Families are eating out more often and the cheapest and fastest food is usually available through a drive-thru window. What was a novelty or a treat becomes the regular routine. Higher calories and less time for relaxation and exercise and more reliance on cars or public transportation cuts down on walking. 

While immigrants’ health is negatively impacted by their new lifestyle, research shows that they still fare better than their American-born counterparts. In fact, one study from the University of California, San Francisco, found that immigrants had a 20 percent lower cancer mortality rate than the same ethnic group born in the United States.

Perhaps there should be signs along the borders warning about the health hazards of immigrating to America. The American Dream still exists, but it comes with a health risk. By choosing the best of healthy traditions from life in the U.S. and their native country, immigrants can live the good life a little longer.

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