The other side of the healthy immigrant paradox: Chinese sojourners in Ireland and Britain who return to China due to personal and familial health crises.

Based on participant observation and interviews conducted between 2003 and 2006, this paper examines the experiences of three young adult Chinese sojourners in Ireland and the United Kingdom who return to the People's Republic of China for permanent residence because of personal or familial health crises. Their experiences illustrate the plight of failed sojourners who are part of the little-studied other side of the "healthy immigrant paradox." The experiences of the sojourners in this case study illustrate factors that tend to prevent less healthy or resourceful sojourner families from even entering the immigrant category, which has been shown to be paradoxically healthier than nonimmigrant native categories in epidemiological studies. This paper's approach demonstrates how ethnography can contribute to the study of public health by shedding light on the experiences of marginal individuals who fall between the cracks of epidemiological studies.