I chalk this up to the category, “This is news how, exactly?”
Here’s the finding in a nutshell — “After arrival in the United States, [Mexican] migrants had a significantly higher risk for first onset of any depressive or anxiety disorder than did non-migrant family members of migrants in Mexico,” the authors report.
Wow, surprising. You mean going to a foreign country, not necessarily knowing anyone, not necessarily having any job or job prospects, and not necessarily knowing the language can negatively impact your mental health?
Do tell.
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I like your assumptions to such an interesting topic. I would assume moving to any new place, such as city, state, or even a new house could cause anxiety problems. For one thing, people are either stressed or trying to adapt to a new lifestyle. I wonder why this article only pertains to the United States. They should have more evidence or research at least to prove their theory. Also, they should compare their findings to other countries, like you said.
Not surprised by this at all. Change is hard. Being treated as an outsider is stressful. Language considerations, cultural differences, and so on – all difficult. And the recent economy definitely hasn’t favored the immigrant. I guess I’ve always assumed some depression compared to those who stayed “home” with the familiar. I agree with you fully. So, what do we do? Identifying a problem is a good start…unless of course the problem is self-evident. Then it’s kind of a waste.
It would be helpful to see what the data for US citizens moving to another country. If the baseline depression is already high in Americans, then the relative increase in stress and depression should be exacerbated more in this population vs a non-American population moving into the USA. Given that the American socio-political and economic environment, its super-power celebrity status, and its identity as the Big Daddy of the world, is bound to generate some corresponding symptoms of stress and depression. There is actually data on stress levels across the world, and the US population seems to peak that metric. Given some of the food-related issues in this country, and the related Obesity factor, do point out to some stress-depressive tendencies. I imagine the data in the study in question may shed more light on a very pertinent problem with the right follow ups, IMHO.
Not surprised by this at all. Change is hard. Being treated as an outsider is stressful.