The impact of EU enlargement on immigrants’ mental health
研究了2007年欧盟东扩对来自罗马尼亚和保加利亚、在意大利伦巴第大区的合法移民心理健康的影响，发现该政策显著改善了年轻男性移民的心理健康，原因在于劳动力市场条件改善。
In this paper2we explore the impact of the 2007 European Union enlargement to Romania and Bulgaria on the mental health of documented immigrants from these countries who arrived in Italy before 2007. Using data from a unique administrative data set for the Italian Lombardy region and by employing a difference-in-differences individual fixed effect estimator, we find that this enlargement caused a significant improvement in the mental health of young male immigrants. To shed light on the mechanisms behind these results, we use data from a unique survey administered in the Lombardy region and show that the enlargement mitigates sources of health concerns and increases income and employment stability through permanent job contracts for young male immigrants. Overall, these findings suggest that enhanced labour market conditions due to enlargement may lead to a subsequent important decrease in psychological distress among immigrants.