Immigration and preventive care utilization in Europe: evidence from retrospective data

This paper studies how preventive healthcare utilization evolves around the migration event for migrants living in Europe. Using retrospective life-history data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we construct an event-time framework that follows individuals before and after migration and estimate within-individual changes in the use of six preventive services. The analysis shows heterogeneous behaviors across different types of preventive care and by gender. Dental care utilization rises after migration for both men and women, suggesting a clear discontinuity at arrival in the destination country. Among women, the use of blood pressure checks, blood tests, and gynecological visits also increases in the post-migration period, whereas mammograms and vision tests display no robust change around migration. We further document heterogeneity by region of origin, with stronger post-migration increases for several services among migrants from Eastern Europe. Our results suggest that preventive care utilization is shaped by the migration and integration process and should not be assumed to adjust immediately after arrival. The results indicate that barriers to preventive care are likely to be most relevant in the early years following migration.