There are considerable differences in respiratory mortality among male migrants to England and Wales according to place of birth and social class. All regions of birth except the Caribbean and East Africa show double the mortality in the manual classes compared to the non-manual classes. Adjusting for class East African immigrants, most of whom are Asian in ethnic origin, suffer 62% higher mortality than average though immigrants from south Asia have average mortality. Men born in Scotland and Ireland also have higher SMRs while Caribbean born men have a lower SMR of 70.