  Abundant evidence has tracked the labour market and health assimilation of
immigrants, including static analyses of differences in how foreign-born and
native-born residents consume health care services. However, we know much less
about how migrants' patterns of health care usage evolve with time of
residence, especially in countries providing universal or quasi-universal
coverage. We investigate this process in Spain by combining all the available
waves of the local health survey, which allows us to separately identify
period, cohort, and assimilation effects. We find that the evidence of health
assimilation is limited and solely applies to migrant females' visits to
general practitioners. Nevertheless, the differential effects of ageing on
health care use between foreign-born and native-born populations contributes to
the convergence of utilisation patterns in most health services after 20 years
in Spain. Substantial heterogeneity over time and by region of origin both
suggest that studies modelling future welfare state finances would benefit from
a more thorough assessment of migration.
