By The emotional impact of migration on children is very high. Many children often feel psychological distress and the pressure of integrating into a new country that sometimes discriminates against them.
The psychological effects of migration on children can last into adulthood . Many arrive with trauma, carrying the emotional anguish of leaving a parent or family member behind. However, it is common not to always appreciate at first glance the internal struggles they bring with them, as well as those they will suffer during their adaptation to the new country.
On the other hand, it is also important to consider the reasons why they migrate. There are families who are looking for better job opportunities. Others enter into an illegal situation hoping for a better quality of life.
Similarly, children who travel as refugees – alone or accompanied – almost always show great psychological vulnerability . Continue reading and find out more about the consequences of these realities.
Recent years have seen the highest levels of forced displacement in history. This requires the development of new psychological care programmes for migrants.
What are the psychological effects of migration on children?
There are many adults who migrated with their families in childhood and who today suffer from mental health problems; generalized anxiety, major depression, addictions, post-traumatic stress disorder , for example. One of the biggest problems for migrant children is that they do not always receive the psychological assistance they need.
Emigration is a growing phenomenon and it is happening almost everywhere on the planet; in one way or another, human beings are recovering their nomadic nature. Works such as those published by Cambridge University Press in 2011, highlight that knowing the anatomy of this reality would allow us to better understand the consequences of the phenomenon, adopting preventive measures against negative consequences.
It is known that while children develop attachment disorders, adolescents tend more towards self-destructive behaviors. Likewise, living without legal status or pending asylum could cause chronic tension, both for adults and for the migrant child and youth population. Learn more about the associated effects below.
1. Separation anxiety
One of the psychological effects of migration on children is separation anxiety . Sometimes they do not understand why they must leave their homes, their belongings and be separated from significant figures. Often, children may travel with only one parent. Sometimes, as with some refugee children, they travel unaccompanied.
This separation from their attachment figures and from their everyday routine surely has a considerable emotional impact on them.
2. Uncertainty and psychological distress
Migration imposes a feeling of instability that can be interpreted as threatening, especially in childhood . A child begins to be happy when he or she interprets that the context around him or her is safe and with very controlled stress peaks. Although he or she does not understand everything that is happening around him or her, he or she knows or intuits where the safety margins are.
Migrating families do not always find a welcoming home immediately. This process generates stress in adults, which is then injected into children, since adults are their main point of reference.
3. Traumatic processes
Among the psychological effects of migration on children, those resulting from trauma are frequent. There are children who carry with them memories of painful experiences from their countries of origin. In addition, the journey itself can be surrounded by uncertainty that is difficult to manage, even for adults. What will be in that place I am going to? How will I be able to communicate with people who speak another language?
Emigration is a process that does not end when someone first arrives at the door of their new home. Sometimes, adaptation and its difficulties open up in children the wounds of traumas they already carried with them, in the same way that it happens with adults.
Many adolescents may develop maladaptive behavior and defiance of authority as a result of unmet emotional needs.
4. Somatic disorders
Somatic complaints are common among children and adolescents who migrate with their parents. Difficult emotions, fears, traumas or constant stress result in discomfort, pain and illness without a physical correlate. The Catholic University of Chile highlights this characteristic in a study. Generally, these psychosomatic disorders manifest themselves in the following way:
- Fatigue.
- Dizziness.
- Headaches.
- Tachycardia.
- Nausea and vomiting.
- Digestive problems.
- Sleep difficulties.
- Musculoskeletal pain.
- Skin problems, such as eczema.
5. Depression
Not playing, being withdrawn, not being interested in their surroundings, and having trouble sleeping or eating are all causes of childhood depression in migrants; a phenomenon that requires more attention. Often, the symptoms of depressive disorder are confused with the difficulty in adapting to the new country.
Insecure behaviors, sadness, or disconnection from their environment are not always due to challenges in the adaptation process. While this is a challenge that is not without stress, it could be a sign of a deeper problem.
6. Maladaptive behaviors
The psychological effects of migration on children include maladaptive or defiant behaviors. In this case, they tend to appear to a greater degree in pre-adolescents or adolescents. The difficulty in managing difficult emotions, everyday problems, and the weight of many unaddressed traumas sometimes translate into behaviors such as those on this list:
- They skip school.
- Self-centeredness and stubbornness.
- They fight frequently.
- They do not assume responsibility.
- Low tolerance to frustration.
- They defy family norms.
- They destroy objects or furniture.
- Negativist/oppositionist attitudes.
- Disrespectful or violent communication.
- Migrant children and adolescents can sometimes be very irritable.
7. Bullying or school harassment
If adaptation is already a challenge for migrant children, this process tends to be made more difficult by experiences of bullying at school . Those seen as “different” in such environments are often the target of mockery and attacks. This creates very difficult experiences for children.
8. The case of “second generation” migrant children
“Second-generation” migrant children are those who were born in the country to which their parents emigrated. They also face particular psychological challenges.
- They often have difficulties developing their identity .
- They feel uprooted, as if they were living between two worlds.
- Despite being born in the country, they feel the weight of rejection or discrimination .
- Second-generation immigrant children are also vulnerable to stress, anxiety and depression.
- Many children suffer from parental disapproval when they adopt the behaviour and customs of the country they live in. They are under pressure to meet their parents’ high expectations.
High and dysfunctional anxiety is very common in young migrants. They often develop it by seeing certain reactions and behaviors in their own families, on a daily basis.
Caring for the mental health of migrant children
Emigration is a verb loaded with uncertainty. It is so for adults and even more so for children, who in many contexts are aware of their vulnerability. As a host society and as individual hosts, it remains to create and strengthen institutions and mechanisms of immediate attention for these groups .
In a world that is constantly changing and where migration will only increase, a global act of awareness is needed as a society. Anyone can find themselves in this situation at some point. Perhaps this experience is already part of who you are or who your parents were. We need to be more sensitive and develop strategies to help and not hinder. And even more so when we are talking about children.