ABSTRACT
This chapter explains some key concepts related to migration health such as ethnicity, race, and multicultural societies, including the relationship they have to each other. It provides a better understanding of some of the key hypothesis related to migration health. Several hypotheses attempting to explain the differences in health between migrants and non-migrants and between minorities and the majority population have been launched. Some of the most important among them include the following: healthy migrant effect; theories of ill health; negative effect; allostatic load; cultural theories/acculturation. The selective migration theory is based on a selection process that determines the type of person that migrates. Migration provides a naturally occurring experiment, which may establish the etiological importance of factors acting at different points in the life course. An advantage of studying both migrants and their offspring is that changes in lifestyle after migration might be easier to capture and contrast.
