Immigration and Mental Health: The Psychological Suffering of Being an Immigrant

What motivates migration can have different causes for each individual, but for everyone it means a rupture — one that can be good or bad, or both good and bad at the same time. The feeling of ambivalence, of division, of being split, can trigger psychological suffering in the immigrant who finds themselves unsure about what to do with their roots. Cut them off or preserve them? “Uprooting” is part of every migratory process, whether it happens by free choice of the migrant or due to an external force, as in the case of refugees, exiles, or expatriates. So, when a root is pulled out, can it be replanted elsewhere? In general, yes, but it depends on the type of plant and the root. Some plants will regenerate well, others not so much. Uprooting a root requires care, because if it is damaged, this can affect the plant’s ability to establish itself in a new place. In this process, one may also discover that the roots were rotten, because not every root is healthy; a family can also be very dysfunctional and cause suffering in the person who wishes to leave. How are immigration and mental health related?

Those who decide to leave and live in another country become divided beings, fragmented, torn between the need to replant their roots or to buy new seedlings. To move is to have new seedlings to plant. And what changes when you move? Migrations may have different reasons, yet whether forced or voluntary, departure will always cause some strangeness in the subject. After all, when you move, you become the stranger, the foreigner. What is it like to be a foreigner? What do you do with the sense of strangeness before others and before yourself? For Freud, one possible reading of what he calls “the uncanny” is that what was once rooted, when pulled out of the ground, produces a certain strangeness and, at the same time, a familiar feeling. Have you ever looked closely at your roots? A root can have many loose and disconnected tips.

Where are your roots?

Trees can represent many things, and one possible metaphor is the symbol of wisdom and ancestry. How long, through how many generations, does a tree last? What fruits does it bear? The saying goes, “the fruit does not fall far from the tree.” When you cut your roots to move to another country, what will you do with them? Do you lose your roots or do you transfer them to your new place? Is migration about cutting and discarding roots, or about replanting them elsewhere? Our family is what waters us with knowledge so that we may flourish, but not all relationships cultivate the soil and the roots well. And in order to flourish, it is sometimes necessary to find different ground.

Someone who migrates by choice may be trying to manage their roots in order to replant themselves in life. In another soil, another plant is born—either with its own roots or with a new seed. And this does not come without pain, even for those with excellent family relationships. And for those without them, there may remain a sense of guilt and remorse, because socially it is expected that you love your roots. From a distance, new relationships with the roots may arise, and often they are better. With migration, it is possible to replant new relationships with one’s origin. When you distance yourself from your family, do you become someone else? Are you freer? Who are you? A family can also be a place of imprisonment and non-flourishing. To migrate is like being born again. And when you are born again, you can choose who you want to be. Who will you be?

What is lost in migration?

Migration also involves loss. What is lost? The loss of cultural ties with Brazil, the loss of the mother tongue, the separation from family and friends, but on the other hand, it can also mean the loss of the shame of being. Would this be a good loss? Many immigrants may take on a “new self” in another country. And under these conditions, do you lose or gain a place? Does every loss involve mourning? Most do, but not all.

Moving can represent social mobility in the search for better living conditions, or, if conditions are already good, it can be a need to experience other ways of life and culture. A new culture can bring shocks, depending on where one chooses to live. For some immigrants, the beginning may involve living without a visa or permit, living without documents—“being illegal,” clandestine, a subject without identity—even if only temporarily, which can have psychological consequences.

The new place, the challenge of a new language, the different climate, the need to build new relationships, the feeling of “being a stranger” in another country can result in symptoms of anxiety, anguish, loneliness, and a sense of non-belonging. Many times, it may also involve a kind of mourning—the loss of the fantasy of what you imagined living abroad would be like. All of this can be distressing in the immigrant’s life.

Brazilians Abroad: Interculturality and Multiculturalism

Is being an immigrant living in duality?

Interculturality and being divided between two cultures can be sources of inner conflict. What role does culture play for each individual? Brazilians are, by definition, multicultural beings, since that is how we were constituted as a nation. What does it mean to be Brazilian? Most of us come from migrant families, and it may be that you have already experienced cultural conflicts within your own family, due to the diversity of beliefs, traditions, and knowledge. When living in another country, intercultural conflict can appear more strongly and manifest itself in denial or reaffirmation of cultural identity. Are you “more Brazilian” when you are outside Brazil, or do you dislike being recognized as Brazilian?

There are Brazilians living abroad who do not want to interact with other Brazilians—would this be a way of denying their roots? Others, on the contrary, make a point of keeping their Brazilian identity alive and only socialize in Brazilian circles, which sometimes is not out of affinity but simply because of the fact of being Brazilian. You might not truly like the person, but there may be the longing to speak Portuguese, to eat Brazilian food, and to revisit affective places stored in memory. This could be a way of alleviating loneliness, yet a relationship that is born out of situational conditions can also create a sense of non-belonging, even among “your own.” Is nationality what unites us? Not always.

For psychoanalysis, division is an inherent condition of the human being, since we are divided between the conscious and the unconscious. The ambivalence of being and existing in a place that is not your place of origin can generate identity confusion and other psychological conflicts. Who are you outside Brazil? Where is your place? What makes you suffer when living abroad? A process of analysis can help you answer these questions and understand the inner conflicts of being an immigrant, so that you can find your place in the world. Do you know where your place is?

Você sabe qual é o seu lugar?

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