Insights into rates, risks and characteristics of suicide by immigration background in Norway

Although most immigrants seem to successfully managethe challenges their immigration process entails, suicidemortality of minority groups has become an importantpublic concern, particularly in countries with growingsegments of immigrant populations such as Norway. Thepresent article aimed to summarize insights into suicideamong various immigrant populations, obtained bythree Norwegian studies we recently conducted utilizingthe unique possibilities of national population registers.First-generation immigrants had a relatively lower riskof suicide than native Norwegians, whereas the risks forpeople with mixed Norwegian and immigrant backgroundwere significantly higher. Suicide risk was associated with arange of socio-economic disadvantages in all populations,but the strength of the association differed by specific immigrationbackground, with a generally weaker association infirst-generation-immigrants than natives. In the meantime,there were notable differences in characteristics of suicideby immigration background with respect to method ofsuicide, month of the year when suicide occurred, and timeto suicide since immigration. All these insights underscorethe importance of treating immigrants as a very heterogeneousgroup, and differences in suicides by specificimmigration background should be considered whenplanning public health policies and prevention measuresin order to more effectively tailor these measures to at-riskimmigrant populations.4 suicidologi nr 1/2019 FAGARTIKKEL