IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v12y2015i10p13624-13648d57823.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Immigrant Mental Health, A Public Health Issue: Looking Back and Moving Forward

Author

Listed:
  • Usha George

    (Faculty of Community Services, Ryerson University, 99 Gerrard Street East, SHE-690; 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada)

  • Mary S. Thomson

    (Faculty of Community Services, Ryerson University, 99 Gerrard Street East, SHE-690; 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Ferzana Chaze

    (Community Studies, Sheridan College, 7899 McLaughlin Road, Brampton, ON L6Y 5H9, Canada
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Sepali Guruge

    (School of Nursing; Ryerson University, Faculty of Community Services; 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada)

Abstract

The Mental Health Commission of Canada’s (MHCC) strategy calls for promoting the health and wellbeing of all Canadians and to improve mental health outcomes. Each year, one in every five Canadians experiences one or more mental health problems, creating a significant cost to the health system. Mental health is pivotal to holistic health and wellbeing. This paper presents the key findings of a comprehensive literature review of Canadian research on the relationship between settlement experiences and the mental health and well-being of immigrants and refugees. A scoping review was conducted following a framework provided by Arskey and O’Malley (Int J Soc Res Methodol 8:19–32, 2005). Over two decades of relevant literature on immigrants’ health in Canada was searched. These included English language peer-reviewed publications from relevant online databases Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, Healthstar, ERIC and CINAHL between 1990 and 2015. The findings revealed three important ways in which settlement affects the mental health of immigrants and refugees: through acculturation related stressors, economic uncertainty and ethnic discrimination. The recommendations for public health practice and policy are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Usha George & Mary S. Thomson & Ferzana Chaze & Sepali Guruge, 2015. "Immigrant Mental Health, A Public Health Issue: Looking Back and Moving Forward," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-25, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:10:p:13624-13648:d:57823
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/10/13624/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/10/13624/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Beiser, Morton & Hou, Feng, 2001. "Language acquisition, unemployment and depressive disorder among Southeast Asian refugees: a 10-year study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 53(10), pages 1321-1334, November.
    2. Chadwick, Kathryn A. & Collins, Patricia A., 2015. "Examining the relationship between social support availability, urban center size, and self-perceived mental health of recent immigrants to Canada: A mixed-methods analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 220-230.
    3. Zunzunegui, Maria-Victoria & Forster, Mathieu & Gauvin, Lise & Raynault, Marie-France & Douglas Willms, J., 2006. "Community unemployment and immigrants' health in Montreal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 485-500, July.
    4. Asanin, Jennifer & Wilson, Kathi, 2008. ""I spent nine years looking for a doctor": Exploring access to health care among immigrants in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(6), pages 1271-1283, March.
    5. Beiser, M. & Hou, F. & Hyman, I. & Tousignant, M., 2002. "Poverty, family process, and the mental health of immigrant children in Canada," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(2), pages 220-227.
    6. Mai Stafford & Bruce K. Newbold & Nancy A. Ross, 2011. "Psychological Distress Among Immigrants and Visible Minorities in Canada: a Contextual Analysis," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 57(4), pages 428-441, July.
    7. Soma Ganesan & Hiram Mok & Mario McKenna, 2011. "Perception of Mental Illness: Preliminary Exploratory Research At a Cross-Cultural Outpatient Psychiatric Clinic," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 57(1), pages 81-89, January.
    8. Gadalla, Tahany M., 2009. "Determinants, correlates and mediators of psychological distress: A longitudinal study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(12), pages 2199-2205, June.
    9. Stewart, Miriam & Makwarimba, Edward & Barnfather, Alison & Letourneau, Nicole & Neufeld, Anne, 2008. "Researching reducing health disparities: Mixed-methods approaches," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(6), pages 1406-1417, March.
    10. Kenneth Fung & Yuk-Lin Renita Wong, 2007. "Factors Influencing Attitudes Towards Seeking Professional Help Among East and Southeast Asian Immigrant and Refugee Women," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 53(3), pages 216-231, May.
    11. Whitley, Rob & Kirmayer, Laurence J., 2008. "Perceived stigmatisation of young mothers: An exploratory study of psychological and social experience," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 339-348, January.
    12. Noh, S. & Kaspar, V. & Wickrama, K.A.S., 2007. "Overt and subtle racial discrimination and mental health: Preliminary findings for Korean immigrants," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(7), pages 1269-1274.
    13. White, Jennifer & Morris, Jonathan, 2010. "Precarious spaces: Risk, responsibility and uncertainty in school-based suicide prevention programs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(12), pages 2187-2194, December.
    14. Beiser, Morton N.M.N. & Hou, Feng, 2006. "Ethnic identity, resettlement stress and depressive affect among Southeast Asian refugees in Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 137-150, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elena Ronda-Pérez & José Miguel Martínez & Alison Reid & Andrés A. Agudelo-Suárez, 2019. "Longer Residence of Ecuadorian and Colombian Migrant Workers in Spain Associated with New Episodes of Common Mental Disorders," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-10, June.
    2. Thespina Yamanis & Mannat Malik & Ana María Del Río-González & Andrea L. Wirtz & Erin Cooney & Maren Lujan & Ruby Corado & Tonia Poteat, 2018. "Legal Immigration Status is Associated with Depressive Symptoms among Latina Transgender Women in Washington, DC," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-15, June.
    3. Jun Wang & Ke Liu & Jing Zheng & Jiali Liu & Liming You, 2017. "Prevalence of Mental Health Problems and Associated Risk Factors among Rural-to-Urban Migrant Children in Guangzhou, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-15, November.
    4. Kénora Chau & Bernard Kabuth & Nearkasen Chau, 2016. "Association between Suicide Ideation and Attempts and Being an Immigrant among Adolescents, and the Role of Socioeconomic Factors and School, Behavior, and Health-Related Difficulties," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, November.
    5. Mabel Ho & Eleanor Pullenayegum & David Burnes & Esme Fuller-Thomson, 2022. "Successful Aging among Immigrant and Canadian-Born Older Adults: Findings from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-18, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carl Stempel & Nilofar Sami & Patrick Marius Koga & Qais Alemi & Valerie Smith & Aida Shirazi, 2016. "Gendered Sources of Distress and Resilience among Afghan Refugees in Northern California: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-22, December.
    2. M. Reza Nakhaie, 2018. "Service Needs of Immigrants and Refugees," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 143-160, February.
    3. Ali Afsharian & Maureen Dollard & Emily Miller & Teresa Puvimanasinghe & Adrian Esterman & Helena De Anstiss & Tahereh Ziaian, 2021. "Refugees at Work: The Preventative Role of Psychosocial Safety Climate against Workplace Harassment, Discrimination and Psychological Distress," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-14, October.
    4. Regina Pernice & Andrew Trlin & Anne Henderson & Nicola North & Monica Skinner, 2009. "Employment Status, Duration of Residence and Mental Health Among Skilled Migrants To New Zealand: Results of a Longitudinal Study," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 55(3), pages 272-287, May.
    5. Yoo, Hyung Chol & Gee, Gilbert C. & Takeuchi, David, 2009. "Discrimination and health among Asian American immigrants: Disentangling racial from language discrimination," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 726-732, February.
    6. Lum, Irene D. & Swartz, Rebecca H. & Kwan, Matthew Y.W., 2016. "Accessibility and use of primary healthcare for immigrants living in the Niagara Region," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 73-79.
    7. Kwak, Kyunghwa, 2016. "An evaluation of the healthy immigrant effect with adolescents in Canada: Examinations of gender and length of residence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 87-95.
    8. Um, Mee Young & Chi, Iris & Kim, Hee Jin & Palinkas, Lawrence A. & Kim, Jae Yop, 2015. "Correlates of depressive symptoms among North Korean refugees adapting to South Korean society: The moderating role of perceived discrimination," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 107-113.
    9. Asiya Patel & Jennifer Dean & Sara Edge & Kathi Wilson & Effat Ghassemi, 2019. "Double Burden of Rural Migration in Canada? Considering the Social Determinants of Health Related to Immigrant Settlement Outside the Cosmopolis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-20, February.
    10. Mohammad M. H. Raihan & Nashit Chowdhury & Tanvir C. Turin, 2023. "Low Job Market Integration of Skilled Immigrants in Canada: The Implication for Social Integration and Mental Well-Being," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-13, March.
    11. Hongyun Fu & Mark VanLandingham, 2012. "Mental Health Consequences of International Migration for Vietnamese Americans and the Mediating Effects of Physical Health and Social Networks: Results From a Natural Experiment Approach," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(2), pages 393-424, May.
    12. Harrison Ng Chok & Judy Mannix & Cathy Dickson & Lesley Wilkes, 2018. "Experiences of registered nurses from a refugee background: A scoping review," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(7-8), pages 1275-1283, April.
    13. Hinton, Devon E. & Nickerson, Angela & Bryant, Richard A., 2011. "Worry, worry attacks, and PTSD among Cambodian refugees: A path analysis investigation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(11), pages 1817-1825, June.
    14. Mathilde Sengoelge & Øivind Solberg & Alexander Nissen & Fredrik Saboonchi, 2020. "Exploring Social and Financial Hardship, Mental Health Problems and the Role of Social Support in Asylum Seekers Using Structural Equation Modelling," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-14, September.
    15. Xin Meng & Sen Xue, 2020. "Social networks and mental health outcomes: Chinese rural–urban migrant experience," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 155-195, January.
    16. Miriam Blume & Petra Rattay & Stephanie Hoffmann & Jacob Spallek & Lydia Sander & Raphael Herr & Matthias Richter & Irene Moor & Nico Dragano & Claudia Pischke & Iryna Iashchenko & Claudia Hövener & B, 2021. "Health Inequalities in Children and Adolescents: A Scoping Review of the Mediating and Moderating Effects of Family Characteristics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-33, July.
    17. Nazan Ulusoy & Anja Schablon, 2020. "Discrimination in In-Patient Geriatric Care: A Qualitative Study on the Experiences of Employees with a Turkish Migration Background," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-14, March.
    18. Blight, Karin Johansson & Ekblad, Solvig & Persson, Jan-Olov & Ekberg, Jan, 2006. "Mental health, employment and gender. Cross-sectional evidence in a sample of refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina living in two Swedish regions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1697-1709, April.
    19. M Pilar Matud & Juan M Bethencourt & Ignacio Ibáñez, 2015. "Gender differences in psychological distress in Spain," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 61(6), pages 560-568, September.
    20. Kim van Zoonen & Annet Kleiboer & Pim Cuijpers & Jan Smit & Brenda Penninx & Peter Verhaak & Aartjan Beekman, 2016. "Determinants of attitudes towards professional mental health care, informal help and self-reliance in people with subclinical depression," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 62(1), pages 84-93, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:10:p:13624-13648:d:57823. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.