Immigrant Experience

And Its Psychological Toll

Information Competency & Library Use

San Francisco, CA

The theoretical framework centers of the immigrant experience and how it changes the individual while navigating his or her new society. The topic statement seeks to explore these phenomena by focusing on the psychological experience and its relationship to violence and economics. The idea that the action of immigrating is profoundly disruptive on ideas of self-worth, identity and economic status are explored.

I address the various experiences of dislocation arising from migration. Distinctions are made between experiences of voluntary immigrants and refugees and asylum seekers and between legal and undocumented immigrants in their risk for trauma exposure and differential impacts of trauma in the context of immigration. Refugee status as inherently founded in trauma is analyzed, with a brief description of torture survivors among refugees. The issue of trafficked migrants is also discussed. What is core...
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