Immigration & Trauma Part 1: What Is Immigration Trauma?

Do you remember your first move? Maybe you were young and your family had just moved to a new city, and you had to adjust to a new neighbourhood and figure out how to fit in at a new school. Or maybe you were older, leaving for school or work in a new place, with a mix of hope, fear, excitement, and worry in your heart.

Whatever the circumstances, moving to a new place always comes with complex emotions and challenges. This is especially true for people who immigrate to a completely different country.

For some, the process of immigration can be traumatic and affect many parts of their mental health, which is why it's so important to recognize and talk about it.

In this four-part series on immigration trauma, we'll look at the types and impact of trauma people can experience through immigration, how it can show up, and what people can do to support themselves and protect their mental health. We'll end the series with what mental health professionals should keep in mind when working with clients experiencing immigration trauma.

Immigration trauma and the immigration process

Immigration trauma is any trauma people experience through the process of immigrating and adjusting, before, during, or after the move.

Many immigrants, and especially refugees, experience trauma at some point in the immigration process. Different parts of the process can be traumatic for different people, but there are some common forms of trauma before, during, and after migration.

Pre-migration trauma

Pre-migration trauma happens before the move itself, and often influences the decision to move.

Not every reason to immigrate is traumatic. Some families are looking for a different or better life, and it's important to consider other possibilities.

But some families immigrate because events forced them to move, such as:

• violence
• poverty
• war
• persecution

Pre-migration trauma can also include more subtle and chronic experiences, like a personal history of trauma, chronic stress, or discrimination based on gender, disability, body size, or sexual orientation.

Preparing for and meeting immigration requirements can also cause or worsen stress and anxiety. Even the very beginning of the immigration process can be traumatic and affect mental health.

Migration trauma

Migration trauma happens during travel and transit to the new country.

The journey isn't safe for everyone. It can be long and dangerous, with real risks, including being targeted for human trafficking. Some people face violence or detention at the border, and some lose access to basic needs like shelter while they wait to be accepted into the new country.

Every step of the process can also be coloured by fear, stress, and anxiety, like the fear of being rejected, deported, or separated from family along the way.

Whatever the route, many immigrants live with the uncertainty of whether they will arrive safely and find a place for themselves in a new country.

Post-migration trauma

Post-migration trauma happens after arriving in the new country.

For many people, living conditions are hard until they can fully settle and find stability. Accessing basic needs like housing, health care, a stable income, and education can be extremely stressful, and even traumatic.

Getting a work permit can still be very difficult, and there can be a lot of uncertainty about legal status before getting permanent residency, for example while claiming asylum or on a student visa. Some people are held in detention while their cases are reviewed, and may be treated very poorly.

Even after settling, changes in laws that affect their status can shake their footing again, making it hard to feel certain of their security and safety.

Immigration trauma and the adjustment process

Adapting, adjusting, and integrating into a new country is a process that never really ends, and it can come as a series of traumatic experiences.

There are many kinds of trauma that can happen during adjustment, and it's important to understand them.

Oppression, discrimination, xenophobia, and racial trauma

Part of immigration trauma can come from the discrimination and unfair treatment people face in their new country.

If you are racialized, you may also experience racial trauma, a psychological injury caused by racism, discrimination, and hate crimes. Since many immigrants are racialized, many experience this kind of trauma, and it affects their health and well-being at every level.

Oppression and discrimination happen at both the individual level and the systemic level.

At the individual level: This can include direct or indirect experiences like microaggressions, targeted harassment or violence, exclusion from social groups (whether subtle or obvious), and demeaning comments or behaviour. It can also include vicarious trauma, like seeing violence against immigrants on the news, or watching your family go through it.

Repeated exposure to these experiences can cause intense distress. To survive, people may hide parts of their identity or reject their own culture to try to fit in, which can cause more trauma down the line.

At the systemic level: Systemic oppression comes from the larger society and its institutions. It reflects a pattern of discrimination that goes beyond one person's prejudice.

This might look like policies that harm immigrants or racialized people more than others, or that are openly hostile toward them, like forced deportation. It can also look like a society that values its own culture over others and expects people to set aside their culture of origin, negative attitudes toward immigrants, or treating immigrants as stereotypes or outsiders.

For example, immigrants, especially people of colour, may be more heavily policed or targeted at every stage: at the border, during immigration screening, while looking for work or housing, and while adjusting to new environments.

Some services can also be harder to access because of residency status, even basic needs like health care, financial supports, employment, and education. All of this can make life in a new country not only feel unsafe, but actually be unsafe.

Loss, grief, and isolation

In a sense, trauma can be seen as a disconnection from yourself, others, or the world, which leaves you feeling isolated and unsteady.

Many immigrants know this feeling, and its trauma, all too well.

Maybe you were the only one in your family who moved, working to make life better for your family back home. Or maybe your family encouraged you to move for a better life while they stayed behind to support you. Even if you moved with your family, losing your home, community, and sense of belonging is common for many immigrants.

Many people also leave behind careers, positions, social status, and achievements, only to work in completely different fields where their experience isn't recognized, just to survive. This can lead to a loss of identity, and with it, a loss of confidence, power, control, and connection with yourself and others.

Cultural bereavement is the loss of culture, language, customs, traditions, and a sense of belonging.

It can also include grieving what you never got to have, like access to your culture or ancestral knowledge. Parents may grieve that their children only speak English. Children of immigrants may miss their culture, or the chance to know it.

When a tragedy happens in their home country, people may grieve that they can't be there to help. Grief can also come from wanting to go back, but not being able to.

All of these experiences can be traumatic and cause grief, and the grief can in turn deepen the trauma and its impact.

Children of immigrants

Children of immigrants can also experience a lot of trauma during adjustment.

They may have to take on adult roles, responsibilities, and stress, which can build into trauma. It's common for them to translate and navigate things for their caregivers, even things beyond their understanding or skills, like complex legal documents. They may also care for younger siblings, or have to work at a young age to support the family.

Essentially, they may have had to become caregivers to their caregivers, guiding them through a new culture and system while struggling and learning as they go themselves.

This can be incredibly stressful and overwhelming. Many also feel pressure not to let down their caregivers' high expectations of success, and the weight of the sacrifices their family made, which adds even more stress.

Language and cultural barriers

Being in a new country comes with both a language barrier and a cultural barrier, as people adjust to new norms and customs and face culture shock.

Learning a new language or new cultural norms can be fun and exciting as a hobby. But when it's tied to your survival and livelihood, it can quickly become a big source of stress. Discrimination and harassment because of language and cultural differences can add to that stress, causing distress, isolation, and trauma.

Constantly code-switching, or acting differently in the dominant culture than you do at home, can also be confusing. It can leave you feeling trapped, as if you never fully belong in either place. This disconnection is especially common for children of immigrants, but it can be isolating and traumatic for many people.

Coming up in this series

Immigration trauma can come from many challenges, including discrimination, racial trauma, and cultural loss, and it can deeply affect immigrants' mental health.

It can lead to isolation, grief, and a loss of identity while adjusting to a new culture.

In the next part of the series, we'll look at how immigration trauma shows up.

Trauma Therapy in Alberta

If the experience of immigration has left a mark, reaching out for support can help.

Trauma therapy offers a space to process cultural loss, discrimination, and displacement. A therapist can help you make sense of what happened and find your footing again.

You can heal.

This article is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for therapy, medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

If you or someone you care about is in crisis or at risk of harm, please get help now. Call 911 or go to your nearest emergency department. You can also call or text 988 any time for suicide and crisis support. For more options, see our crisis support page.

About the Author

Jiwon You is a Registered Psychologist specializing in trauma therapy and self-esteem therapy with adults. She is passionate about helping people heal from trauma and self-criticism so they can feel better and live more fulfilling lives. Jiwon offers services in Korean and English.