Mental Health + Immigration Process

Mental Health and Discrimination Among US Immigrants

Imagine waking up every day fearing what others will say or do to you, this is the reality for immigrants inside the United States. Being born in the US is a privilege we as Americans take for granted, immigrants do not have this privilege, they came to get more opportunities, only to have this dream stripped from them. Immigrants face challenges with jobs, education, healthcare, society, housing, and food. Many of these aspects occur because of discrimination, prejudices, and stereotypes which leads to worsening mental health in anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Decreases in mental health and immigrant discrimination inside the US go hand and hand. Immigrants inside the United States should be treated better.

Immigration has been a complex situation for years. Many people say immigrants are treated worse than "prisoners of war," and currently the US (ICE) is holding 25,000 in detention. Everyday immigrants are discriminated against based on race, appearance, ethnic background, culture, language, and religion (Bauldry, 2019). They are often seen as less than others and have problems getting jobs, accessing housing or education, and simple tasks such as getting food or trying to find a community are challenging. Immigrant groups such as Asian, Somali, and Latinx are often working low-paying jobs and experience raids against them. All these factors are shown to produce higher amounts of anxiety, depression, and PTSD with immigrants inside the US; acculturation stress, integration into society, discrimination, and social marginalization (Ayon, 2015). If the immigrant population is going to grow to 78 million by 2065, how will they be treated better as this number grows?

Somali immigrants are treated poorly, a study conducted by (Lincoln, A. K. et al, 2021) found worsening mental health is directly correlated with discrimination. This study was conducted with Somali Refugees ages 18-30 within four regions of the United States. To start, a table displayed results of experiences of discrimination against Somali immigrants, the main experiences being treated with less courtesy than others (72.4%) and people acting as if they are better (79.3%); both on the everyday scale. Somali immigrants were also seen to be treated with less respect than others (65.4%), receiving poorer service (66.7%), people assuming they are not smart (68.8%), people acting afraid of them (56.0%), called names (56.9%); again, on the everyday scale. On the lifetime scale, many were stopped, threatened, or abused by the police (41.9%), discouraged by a teacher to continue education (28.2%), and not hired for a job (27.8%). The reasons behind this treatment were said to be ethnicity, bad people or a bad world, race, religion, assumptions, social associations, and appearance. Discrimination with marginalized acculturation, Somali community belongingness, receiving community belongingness, and neighborhood collective efficacy all lead to worsening anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Individual-level worsening mental health is associated with a marginalized acculturation style, which in turn can make one lose identity and feel devalued in their ethnic community. On the community-level belonging can lead to worsening mental health, if one has a connection to the American community then one may have worse effects on being rejected and discriminated by society, the study's results provide information on how immigrant mental health and discrimination go hand and hand.

Immigrants coming into the US typically have better mental health than their US counterparts. However, the longer they stay the worse this mental health becomes. Looking at the population, one in four kids in 2020 has an immigrant parent, immigrants are a prevalent part of our current society. To look at one more group of immigrants, Caribbean black immigrants. In this study (Williams) It was shown male immigrant has a higher risk for mental health disorders compared to African American men and non-immigrants in the US. Second and third-generation Caribbean men also had higher rates of psychiatric disorders, third generation Caribbean black immigrants had the highest risk by a decent gap. This ties into discrimination as this mental health decreases as these immigrants are exposed to minority status, social mobility, and social stress. Another study found these similar findings for this specific group of immigrants (Bauldry, 2019). As stated, migrants have higher rates of psychiatric disorders, and those from developing countries especially where the population is black, have the highest rates. Caribbean, Eastern, and South American country immigrants' schizophrenia hospitalization risk increases for adolescent immigrants and second-generation with one or two immigrant parents, higher for females. This shows the diversity and widespread mental disorders of immigrants and the grave and substantial impact they have on these people in the US.

Latinx immigrants are treated poorly, these people experience a high rate of discrimination thus leading to poor mental health. (Fleming 2019) Additionally, Latinx immigrants have lower skills and education opportunities and in turn occupy lower-paying jobs such as maids (49%), taxi drivers (47%), and construction workers (35%). This group specifically is faced with heightened housing discrimination, ethnic enclaves, institutional and work discrimination, poorer child services, and microaggressions (Ayon, 2015). Raids also occur against immigrants as racial profiling someone and structural discrimination is seen. Latinos with darker skin face more discrimination and this has led to differences in payments, these people often earn $2,500 less per year. In New York City the average hourly pay would be $10-15 but for Latino immigrants, it is $8-10. Segregation by income has the same level of relevance as segregation by ethnicity. Latino youth with darker skin gets discriminated against even lighter-skinned Latinos. Parents automatically have increased levels of stress that lead to emotional and behavioral problems, appetite loss, sleep disruptions, withdrawal, anger, anxiety, and clinginess. Parents who may speak less English may have an increased backlash. On the US-Mexico border, there are often workplace and community raids, and "discretionary stops" (emotional and verbal abuse, physical mistreatment, and ethnic profiling) resulting in PTSD. There is sufficient evidence of this correlation stated above (Lee, 2019).

Asian Americans as well as events over the years have a correlation to discrimination and mental health. The second and third generations are seen to have higher risks for mental health, one being substance use for people, but especially seen for women. Specific events can increase the decline of mental health due to discrimination, as Asian American immigrants received higher rates due to COVID-19, as well as depictions of these immigrants in Hollywood from the past that last to this day. Headlines named "American Bears Out Kwan...Forever Foreign" or comments such as "My you speak English Well. How long have you been in this country?" also display discrimination (Holland & Knight, 2021). Race "yellow" dating back to describing these immigrants and language are the main categories against these people. Throughout the years this discrimination has not gotten any better and mental health has not increased. Perceived racial discrimination is attached to a higher risk of mental disorders such as depression. There was a study conducted with 888 Asian Americans that showed Asian American immigrants living in the US for 10-plus years had higher rates of mental health conditions than those who have spent less time inside the US (Yoo, 2014). Through the past paragraphs, the more time spent in the US, the more discrimination faced, thus leading to worsening mental health over the years. As generations increase the same effect is seen through the past years and decades.

Events again greatly impact discrimination. Trump's 2016 election is a case where Syrian immigrants should be treated better. For background as (Bauldry, 2019) summarizes, this 2016 election targeted Syrian people (Muslim primarily) and Mexicans, and this transpires in the form of immigrants. During the 2016 US election, there was disrespectful language used to describe Mexican immigrants. Former President Donald Trump sent an order to stop Syrian immigrants from entering the US for 120 days and traveling for 90 days from seven Muslim-majority countries, he claimed that America needed to protect itself from terrorism. A study (Fleming, 2019) shows the after-effects of this ban and its discriminatory nature, specifically in Michigan on Latino families. There were findings that showed an impact on mental health. These three were fear of deportation and separation of families, which led to community fractures, and an increase in health-related utilization. The whole term of service led to emotional distress due to fear of family separation and a decrease in economic mobility and education.

Treating people right should be a standard, there is a term according to (Canizales, 2021) called "racialized citizenship" where any non-whites are viewed as foreigners. Latinos also face the "Latino threat narrative," which depicts these immigrants as illegal, criminal, intellectually and culturally less, public resource drainers. Latinx immigrants were directly attacked and racialized during Trump's period in office, there was "border security," detention, and an increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Mexican Protection Protocols, Stephen Miller and others wanted to decrease non-whites entering ("zero tolerance"), and more. Trump has called Latinos "animals," the FBI reported that in 2019 hate crimes against Latinos increased by over 21 percent. Leaders and those in power sway the people to act in certain ways. Over the years, this has not been the only occasion of discrimination, leaders often do this, and innocent people are constantly being attacked. These immigrants are suffering not only mentally, but, socially, economically, culturally, linguistically, and physically. This is a prevalent issue that should be changed.

On the other hand, people inside the United States say that immigrants hurt the economy. Americans say immigrants take away jobs from American workers or lower the middle-class economy. However, this all has been seen to be false as immigrants increase economic output by increasing productivity and the size of labor (Rouse, 2021). These immigrants also fill essential needs of the workforce, strengthen the middle class, push the economy or jumpstart (after decline), fuel innovation, drive business creation and diversify the economy. Myths such as the US does not need immigration to increase population, it hurts American workers, take jobs from Americans and puts wages down, drains the US economy, they are a burden to essential services, the American people want a reduction in immigrants, and does not want more, use immigrants to replace American workers so they can be underpaid, resettling immigrants is too expensive, are all myths that people have heard, but all false as immigration only helps the United States and is essential to the success of the nation as a whole (FWD, 2020). Immigrants only make America stronger in all aspects, but people still treat them as if they are weaker.

The main immigrant groups being Latinx, and Somalis are shown to have significant increases in anxiety, depression, and PTSD due to their discriminatory experiences in the United States. The more time spent in the US, the more mental health declines and discrimination experiences increase. It is shown that immigrants are not treated fairly, and political leaders only make this problem worse. The experiences of discrimination only continue to pile up, Somali (70% plus act better than them), Latinx (less education and skill opportunities), Asian Americans (described as "yellow), Syrians (not allowed in the US, and are "dangerous"); once more, is this the world we intended to create?

Works Cited

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