Mistrust, anger, and hostility in refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants: A systematic review.

Abstract

Western societies are witnessing major demographic changes because of human displacement. The September 11 attacks and the wars that followed have increased host societies’ feelings of hostility, anger, and mistrust toward refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants, especially those from Arab countries. This systematic review aimed to gather available peer-reviewed literature regarding how society’s hostile attitudes and feelings of anger and mistrust toward these refugees may have a negative impact on their general well-being. It further aimed to identify whether society’s discrimination and negative feelings toward this population influence the refugees’ willingness to seek support from services provided by the host society and, simultaneously, to trust the helping professionals who provide the services. Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria. Results indicated that: (a) host societies’ mistrust, hostility, and discrimination expressed in overt or subtle ways toward refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants have a harmful impact on their biopsychosocial well-being, often triggering feelings of helplessness, anger, frustration, and general mistrust; (b) society’s discriminatory attitudes and behaviours may lead refugees and asylum seekers to avoid social and health services even when needed, and to transfer their negative feelings onto helping professionals; and (c) immigration laws and policies may have deleterious effects on their biopsychosocial well-being, on society’s negative views of them, and on their own perception vis-à-vis available services and helping professionals. Some recommendations are provided to address these concerns.

Mental Health of Refugee Children and Youth: Epidemiology, Interventions, and Future Directions

“…We argue that given the recent upsurge in antirefugee sentiment in many countries (15), more research should focus on identifying refugee youth exposure to aggressive discrimination and traumatic events after resettlement. Hostility toward and hate crimes against refugees, in particular those from predominantly Muslim countries, mean that current psychosocial functioning of youth may be affected by not only premigration but also postmigration violence and loss (4).…”

Societies’ hostility, anger and mistrust towards Migrants: A vicious circle

“…Being emotionally vulnerable as a consequence of discrimination and hostility seems to place migrants at risk of employing coping mechanisms that are harmful to themselves: isolation, rumination, substance abuse, suicide ideations (Gomez et al, 2011); or to others: anger, hostility, aggression (Borders & Liang, 2011); or to search for life-meaning by joining mafias or other organised groups (Kruglanski et al, 2009;Lyons-Padilla et al, 2015). As highlighted in previous literature, stereotyped messages and hostile attitudes from society, social media, political figures and helping services, not only harm the psychosocial well-being of migrants, but also damage their trust in helping professionals (Da Silva Rebelo et al, 2018;Douma, 2014;Rhodes et al, 2015;Sla´dkova´et al, 2012) and thus compromise possible interventions to reduce the risks for self and others.…”

“…According to the literature, the presence of hostile messages in media and in political and social contexts strongly affects migrants' well-being, undermines their resilience levels (Williams & Mohammed, 2009), reduces their trust in public services (Cavazos-Rehg et al, 2007;Sla´dkova´et al, 2012), weakens their willingness to seek support from psychosocial services and erodes their trust in helping professionals (Da Silva Rebelo et al, 2018;T. Hynes, 2003;Pollock et al, 2012;Renzaho et al, 2013).…”

Immigrant status, citizenship, and victimization risk in the United States: New findings from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)*

“…Although we controlled for many demographic and socioeconomic attributes in the NCVS data, other individual-and structural-level characteristics associated with victimization risk not included in our study may influence a person's decision to answer the citizenship question. For example, some individuals may avoid answering the citizenship question because they want to protect members of their households or communities who may be harmed by discriminatory behaviors and policies against immigrants (see, e.g., da Silva Rebelo et al, 2018;Martinez & Iwama, 2014;Menjívar & Abrego, 2012;Schueths, 2012). Others may avoid the citizenship question because of a more general mistrust of government and a tendency to avoid sensitive topics (Hogan, 2020).…”