The impact of EU enlargement on immigrants’ mental health

In this paper we 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.