Toward a Positive Psychology of Immigrants

Abstract

The vast majority of immigration-focused research in psychology is rooted in deficit models that center on negative health outcomes (e.g., depression, acculturative stress, anxiety, substance use), resulting in a widely held assumption that immigrants are at greater risk for pathology and poor well-being compared with native-born individuals. Moreover, current political discourse often portrays immigrants as more prone to crime compared with native-born individuals. From a positive-psychology perspective, we argue that, despite numerous migration-related challenges, many immigrant populations report positive patterns of psychological health. We also provide evidence that immigrants are, in fact, less prone to crime than their native-born counterparts. We conclude by discussing several contributing factors that account for positive immigrant well-being across the range of destination countries. Ultimately, the field should address questions regarding (a) immigrants’ strategies for coping with the challenges involved in adapting to new homelands and (b) asset-based factors that help immigrants to thrive during difficult life challenges.

Alcohol use severity, depressive symptoms, and optimism among Hispanics: Examining the immigrant paradox in a serial mediation model

“…Such exercises may increase optimism because they provide individuals with more defined pathways to obtaining salient life goals, which may encourage positive thinking about the future. Another possible intervention may target optimism by identifying and capitalizing on the strengths shared by many Hispanics such as familism, community support systems, and social‐cognitive coping skills (Cobb et al, 2019). Extensive evidence exists that positive appraisal (in which stressful events are re‐construed as benign, valuable, or beneficial), a cognitive skill that can lead to increased optimism, can counter self‐attribution in the face of negative life experiences (Antonovsky, 1987).…”

“…Despite advances in accounting for the immigrant paradox, most research focuses exclusively on stressors as explanations for the paradox. Recent work noted patterns of positive health among immigrants and called for more attention to the positive processes underlying such health (Cobb et al, 2019). Inclusion of both stressful and positive processes is important because these processes often co‐occur, and together, provide a more holistic view of psychosocial functioning.…”

Psychological Antecedents of Refugee Integration (PARI)

“…Migrants' personality traits are particularly relevant to our model to the extent that they can PSYCHOLOGY OF REFUGEE INTEGRATION 14 serve as individual resources for coping with immigration. These resources include a person's resilience, including extraversion, agreeableness, openness, emotional stability, generalized trust, level of education, (cultural) intelligence, motivational persistence, wisdom (including conflict resolution skills or perspective taking), orientation towards collectivism, and religiosity (see Cobb et al, 2019;Sleijpen, Boeije, Kleber, & Mooren, 2015;Ward & Geeraert, 2016). For instance, more extraverted migrants are more likely to reach out and network with residents, whereas other, more introverted migrants remain isolated.…”

“…Research also suggests that migrants with personal dispositions such as enthusiasm, persistence or hope, are better able to find creative or unusual remedies to perceived assaults PSYCHOLOGY OF REFUGEE INTEGRATION 19 on agency and control (see Cobb et al, 2019). An illustration is the case of Mahmoud Al Fawal, who fled from Syria to Ghana, which is a rare destination for Syrian refugees (Bogner & Hertzberg, 2019).…”

“…Relatedly, the belief that migrants were forced to leave their homes due to war or persecution enhances residents' support for granting asylum (Bansak et al, 2016;Kotzur et al, 2017) and endorsement of multiculturalism (Verkuyten, 2005). Social support from residents, and migrants' realization of residents' helping intentions, are both likely to facilitate individuals' coping with the demands and stressors of immigration (see Cobb et al, 2019).…”