Understanding the complex ways in which migration affects health also requires more systematic attention to the social and psychological resources that immigrants bring with them and empirical verification of their effects on health and the ways in which these resources may change over time. Social and family ties, cultural traditions, identity and religious engagement have all been identified as potential positive resources.117, 118 However, one national study found that adjusting for multiple measures of SES, both formal support (religious attendance) and informal social support were unrelated to physical and mental health for the foreign-born but predictive of health for the native-born.110 This study also found that social support does not account for the better health of Hispanic immigrants.
