Caribbean migration to the US and England: a cross-national comparison of neighbourhood effects

There have been significant levels of migration from the Caribbean to Europe and North America since the 1880s, and although we now know that health profiles of Caribbean migrants differ depending on the country they migrated to, whereby black Caribbean people in the US have better health than their English counterparts, there is a dearth of knowledge on how migrants shape the areas where they settle, and how these, in turn, affect their health. This study analysed two cross-sectional nationally representative surveys, in the US and in England, to contrast the association between two measures of neighbourhood residential concentration (black and Caribbean) and health and experienced racism among Caribbean people. Results of multilevel logistic regressions show that in the US increased Caribbean residential concentration was associated with improved health and decreased experienced racism, but the opposite was observed in England. On the other hand, increased black residential concentration was associated with improved health and decreased experienced racism of Caribbean English but not of Caribbean Americans. Findings show how the social construction of race and ethnicity differs depending on the country migrants arrive to, and the association that these different racialised identities have on neighbourhood effects on health.