Mental Health Issues at the Pre-migration stage

Retrieved from International Migration and the Mental Health of African Economic Migrants DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.28763.23843

The pre-migration stage is the stage of migration which highlights the human security experiences in the country of origin, decision making process to migrate, mobilization of resources to migrate and living in a host country. In other words, it can be viewed as the push and pull factors stage of migration. Economic insecurity as a push factor is common among most African migrants.[3, 6, 9] Issues associated with economic insecurity include unemployment, individual ambitions (accumulation of wealth), poverty, poor living conditions and poor wages.[7, 2] Unemployment causes majority of unemployed persons to have lower mental well-being.[5] Demographic characteristics of individuals (gender, age and social support among others) play a major role in determining the considerable negative effects of unemployment on the well-being of individuals. Eisenberg and Lazarsfeld identified 3 stages of how unemployment affects mental well-being of individuals.[4] However these stages were silent of the demographic characteristics of individuals to withstand lowered mental well being. With the first of the three stages, the individual become optimistic of getting employed. Hence, beings active search for employment. At this stage the individual remains highly motivated. Pessimistic sets in at the second stage if all efforts by the individual to get employed fail. Anxiety and distress are experienced at this stage. The final stage is the stage the individual experiences a broken attitude and tends to adapt to his new state of unemployment. Mental health issues according to Warr are consequences of the failure of satisfying human needs which shapes human behaviour. Anxiety, self-doubt, lowered self-esteem are a few psychological effects.[10] Relatively, the level impact on mental health at the pre-migration stage is less significant.[8] It is important acknowledge that the less significant impact of pre-migration stressors on mental health issues of African migrants cannot be completely neglected. A qualitative study on pre-migration and post migration stress impact on mental health and PTSD across six EU countries (France, UK, Italy, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands) revealed that pre-migration stressors have less significant impact on general mental health of African migrants (Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Cameroon).[8] The study however found pre-migration stress as a good predictor of Post traumatic Stress Disorder. Another study revealed that pre-migration factors lead to less mental health issues.[1] The only variable in the two studies which was associated with increased mental health issue (anxiety) was decision to choose a destination country.

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References

[1] Carroll, H., Luzes, M., Freier, L. F. & Bird, M, D.(2020). The Migration Journey and Mental Mealth: Evidence from Venezuelan Forced Migration. ScienceDirect SSM - Population Health Journal.

[2] Czaika, M. & Hobolth, M. (2016). Do restrictive asylum and visa policies increase irregular migration into Europe? European Union Politics, 17(3), 345-365.

[3] de Haas, H. (2017). Situation analysis. Patterns, levels and trends of African migration. In African Regional Consultative Meeting on the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, Addis Ababa, 26 and 27 October 2017. Retrieved from https://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/uploadeddocuments/SocialDevelopement/Global-Compact-Migration-2017/situationalanalysis-migration-report_english.pdf.

[4] Eisenberg, P. & Lazarsfeld P. (1938). The Psychological Effects of Unemployment. Psychol. Bull. 35, 358-390.

[5] Ezzy, D. (1993). Unemployment and Mental Health:A Critical Review. Sot. Sci. Med. Vol. 37, No. I, pp. 41-52.

[6] Horwood, C., Forin, R., & Frouws, B. (Eds.). (2018). Mixed migration review 2018. Highlights. Interviews. Essays. Data. Geneva: Mixed Migration Centre. Retrieved from http://www.mixedmigration.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11.

[7] King, G. & Murray, C. J. L. (2001). Rethinking Human Security. Political Science Quarterly, 116(4), pp.585-610.

[8] Idemudia,E. and Boehnke, K. (2020). Psychosocial Experiences of African Migrants

in Six European Countries, Social Indicators Research Series 81,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48347-0_5

[9] International Organization of Migration (2018). 6,000 Migrant deaths recorded in 2017:Only a fraction of the real number’ Worldwide: GMDAC. Retrieved from https://www.iom.int/news/6000-migrant-deaths-recorded-2017-only-fraction-real-number-worldwide-gmdac.

[10] Warr, P. (1987). Work, Unemployment and Mental Health. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

World Health Organization (2018). Health of Refugees and Migrants: Regional situation analysis, practices, experiences, lessons learned and ways forward. https://www.who.int/migrants/publications/EURO-report.pdf.