Journal of Public Health published a recent study by Vanthomme and colleagues with a nationwide assessment of excess mortality patterns by migrant groups during the first three COVID-19 waves in Belgium. 

Data on the legal Belgian population aged 40 years and older (N = 6,004,695) were derived from an individual-level linkage between the Belgian National Register, the 2011 Belgian census and the tax register. 

The study underlined important inequalities in mortality excesses in specific migrant communities compared to the native population, showing variation across the consecutive COVID waves. The heaviest mortality burden fell on the elderly male population, whose mortality patterns diverged considerably from pre-pandemic times. The largest mortality differences with the Belgian population were observed for elderly Turkish men (> 26% in waves 1–3) and women (~40% in wave 2–3), after controlling for sociodemographic and socioeconomic indicators. While in 2019 some migrant groups experienced a mortality advantage compared to their Belgian peers, this advantage was reduced or turned into a disadvantage during the COVID-crisis.

The full article is available via: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10389-023-02180-0