Immigration-Related Stressors and Mental Health Outcomes Among Central Asian Immigrants

Background and Purpose: Immigration has been at the forefront of political discussions in America. A nationwide survey found only 45% of Americans believed immigrants were improving the country, whereas 37% believed immigrants were worsening the country. As the nature of the host society affects the well-being of immigrants, the effect of immigration-related stressors on immigrant mental health becomes an important issue.

The current study explores associations between immigration-related stressors and three mental health outcomes: daily stress, acculturative stress, and risk of major depression among Muslim majority Central Asian immigrants. Central Asian immigrants come from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, representing a dual identity population in America – of immigrants and Muslims.

Methods: We used a mixed-method approach, combining survey (N = 135) and qualitative data (N = 32) collected in Russian and English on Amazon MTurk. The study protocol was approved by a north-eastern research university IRB.

Dependent variables were daily stress (0 – 10), acculturative stress (1 = high; 0 = low or no), and risk of major depression (1 = yes; 0 = no). Independent variables representing environmental stressors were fear of deportation and perceived discrimination. Independent variables representing individual coping resources were Muslim identity, education, and English proficiency. We used descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and linear and logistic regressions for analysis.

Qualitative data provided context for the participants’ discrimination experiences.

Results: The mean age was 33; 46% were women, and 85% identified as Muslims. Linear regression for daily stress showed a significant positive association with fear of deportation (β = .25, p < .005) and perceived discrimination (β = .52, p < .001). Logistic regression for acculturative stress showed a significant positive association with fear of deportation (OR = 7.59, p < .001), perceived discrimination (OR = 1.16, p < .005), and education (OR = 4.97, p < .05), and a significant negative association with Muslim identity (OR = .22, p < .05). Logistic regression for risk of major depression showed a significant positive association with fear of deportation (OR = 3.33, p < .05), perceived discrimination (OR = 1.08, p < .05), and education (OR = 3.1, p < .05).

Survey data showed that 46% of respondents were discriminated for their race or ethnicity, 33% for gender, and 30% for religion, and 30% for age. Qualitative data showed that some immigrants experienced biased attitudes from their Caucasian Russian-speaking employers and cited their ethnicity, poor Russian language skills, and country of origin as reasons for the biased attitudes.

Conclusions and Implications: Despite the presence of individual coping resources, environmental stressors are strongly correlated with immigrants’ mental health outcomes. Discrimination and biased attitudes for Central Asian immigrants are based on ethnic relationships within Russian-speaking immigrant communities. Next, the fear of deportation is a prevailing environmental stressor among Muslim immigrants. Finally and surprisingly, Muslim identity have a protective influence on acculturative stress – a finding that could have implications for developing interventions for this population. Future research should account for both environmental and individual determinants.