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Immigration—both the experience of migrating and events after migration—can affect the mental health and well-being of immigrants and their communities. However, evidence suggests that immigrants in the United States do not access mental health services to the same extent as nonimmigrants. In particular, immigrant adolescents and young adults may have unique stressors related to their developmental stage, experiences in school and with peer groups, and shifting roles within family systems. This scoping review summarizes findings from published research studies and practitioner-focused gray literature about the mental health needs of immigrant communities in the United States. The review finds that specific mental health needs vary across factors like age, racial/ethnic group, immigration status, and place of residency. Findings also indicate that structural factors like immigration-related laws affect both access to mental health services and stressors in the overall environment for immigrants and their families. This review also explores models of community-level initiatives that utilize strengths-based approaches to promoting mental health and well-being among immigrant communities. Findings highlight the need for a better understanding of the mental health needs and current barriers to care among diverse immigrant populations, as immigration continues to play a major role in U.S. public policy and discourse. The COVID-19 pandemic taking place as this article goes to press in 2020 also raises questions regarding health equity and access for marginalized populations, including immigrants and their communities, and so these findings also indicate the need for further interdisciplinary research to assess intersections among the pandemic’s many impacts, including those related to mental health and well-being.

This article presents select findings from a case study about applied theatre at a school for girls with refugee backgrounds in the United States. The data were collected through direct observations, semi‐structured interviews, and analysis of students' work. The study uses an intersectional analysis to explore relationships between gender, race, heritage cultures, and language use in arts‐based activities. The author describes one assignment in which students researched a woman from history and then wrote and performed a first‐person monologue from this person's point of view. The researcher discusses ways that the assignment's structure limited students' choices about whom to learn about and portray. In particular, the assignment centered gender over other aspects of students' identities related to heritage cultures, heritage languages, and race. Findings are also reported from interviews with students about how they navigated these parameters and their experiences as writers and performers. Finally, the author considers ways audiences may shape the narratives students are encouraged to tell. Findings highlight ways arts‐based practices directly and indirectly influenced the narratives students with refugee backgrounds created and performed in their resettlement community. The author concludes by discussing implications for arts‐based practices for teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL).

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