Immigrants’ voyages to a new land have been among the most exciting and noble of human endeavors. It is the amazing courage to flee oppression, to leave behind everything that is familiar, and to chance the hostility of a completely alien culture in order to find freedom, opportunity, and a better life. Immigrants are moving to a new country for the best of motives: the desire to improve their lives; the urge to leave countries whose governments they could not abide; and the willingness to work for another country where individuals can live in freedom and dignity. Many and many immigrants and refugees, including Albert Einstein, Ernst Boris Chain, Selman Abraham Waksman, Enrico Fermi, Sigmund Freud, Eric Fromm, Bertold Brecht, Jean Gabin, Charles de Gaulle, Thomas Mann, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire), and Victor Hugo have made a remarkable contribution to the welfare and happiness of mankind.

Immigrants often face difficulty adjusting to their new home in a new country for many reasons, including coping with trauma experienced in their native country, overcoming cultural and language barriers, and encountering discrimination. This can lead to severe and long-lasting psychological and behavioral problems, including depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and a high risk for suicide. The effects of immigration on psychological and social well-being are especially profound for certain populations, including children, women, individuals with disabilities, and those with limited financial resources. Many immigrants are often forced to take low-qualified jobs, even though they have the training and education for professional jobs. They cannot sustain their former economic and social status, which can lead to psychological distress. Despite the critical need for mental health services, immigrants face significant obstacles to receiving quality mental health care including financial difficulties, the lack of culturally- and linguistically-appropriate services, and mistrust of mental health providers.

The results of the most recent research studies related to immigration and mental health will be presented in the book, “Immigration and Mental Health: Stress, Psychiatric Disorders and Suicidal Behavior Among Immigrants and Refugees”. This book will be of interest to physicians, psychologists, mental health counselors, sociologists, politicians, social workers, public health administrators, medical, psychology and sociology students, and lay people.

Publisher: Nova Science Publishers (2010)

Editors: Leo Sher and Alexander Vilens

Table of Contents:

Preface

Part I. Suicidal behavior

Chapter 1. A model of suicidal behavior among immigrants with psychiatric disorders
Leo Sher.
Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York, USA

Chapter 2. Immigration and suicide: an overview
Brian Greenfield¹ and Londa Daniel².
¹McGill University Faculty of Medicine and Montreal Children’s Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; ²Concordia University, Irvine, California, USA

Chapter 3. Immigrants and suicidal behavior: the role of gender
Diana van Bergen¹ and Sawitri Saharso².
¹The Netherlands Institute for Social Research, The Hague, The Netherlands; ²VU University Amsterdam and University Twente, The Netherlands

Chapter 4. Suicidal behavior among Hispanic immigrants in the United States
Guilherme Borges^1,3, Liliana Mondragón¹ and Joshua Breslau².
¹National Institute of Psychiatry, México, México; ²UC Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento, California, USA; ³Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, México City, México

Chapter 5. Suicidality and Acculturation in Hispanic Adolescents
Andres J. Pumariega¹, Eugenio M. Rothe², Jeffrey Swanson³, Charles E. Holzer⁴, Arthur O. Linskey⁵ and Ruben Quintero-Salinas⁶.
¹Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; ¹The Reading Hospital, Reading, Pennsylvania, USA; ²Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA; ³Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA; ⁴University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA; ⁵University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg, Texas, USA; ⁶Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas, Matamoros, Mexico

Chapter 6. Suicide amongst Britain’s immigrant population: data sources, analytical approaches, and main findings
Peter J Aspinall.
University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, UK

Chapter 7. The effects of Immigration on the mental health of adolescents: depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, delinquent and suicidal behavior among Immigrant youth
Dana Galler^1,2 and Leo Sher¹.
¹Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York, USA; ²Yeshiva University, Stern College for Women, New York, New York, USA

Part II. Acculturation and mental health

Chapter 8. Acculturation and mental disorders among immigrants
Michael G. Madianos.
University of Athens and Behavioral Sciences School of Health Sciences, Athens, Greece

Chapter 9. Immigration, psychosocial factors and psychological distress, with focus on perceived control and social integration
Odd Steffen Dalgard.
Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway

Chapter 10. Depression among Latinos in the United States
Patricia Gonzalez¹ and Monica Rosales².
¹San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA; ²City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California, USA

Chapter 11. Acculturation, acculturative stress, and depression among Haitians in the United States
Guerda Nicolas, Darren Bernal and Seth T. Christman.
University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA

Chapter 12. Changes in the Psychological Well-Being of Immigrants: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study of Immigrant Adolescents Including the Pre-Migration Period
Eugene Tartakovsky.
School of Social Work at Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel

Chapter 13. Mental Health Problems among Immigrants in Israel
Alexander M. Ponizovsky.
Mental Health Services, Ministry of Health, Jerusalem, Israel

Chapter 14. Epidemiology of mental health problems among immigrants. Case of Korean immigrants in Brazil
Sam Chun-Kang¹, Denise Razzouk¹, Jair J. de Mari¹, Itiro Shirakawa¹ and Luiza Beth Alonso^2
1Federal University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil; ²Catholic University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil

Chapter 15. Successful Use of Mental Health Migration Models: The New Zealand Experience
Regina Pernice.
Massey University, New Zealand

Part III. Substance abuse

Chapter 16. Substance Use Disorder among Immigrants in the United States
Sun S Kim¹, David Kalman^1,2, Gerardo Gonzales¹ and Douglas Ziedonis¹.
¹University Of Massachusetts School of Medicine, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA; ²Edith Nourse Memorial Veterans Administration Medical Center, Bedford, Massachusetts, USA

Chapter 17. Alcohol Drinking and Treatment among Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel: Review of Recent Publications January 2007-June 2009
Shoshana Weiss.
Alcohol Research Unit, Nahariya, Israel

Part IV. Miscellaneous

Chapter 18. The Motives for Migration
Michal Sabah and Barbara S. Okun.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

Chapter 19. The social and cultural context of immigration and stress
Katie Vasey and Lenore Manderson.
School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, and School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, Victoria, Australia

Chapter 20. Post-traumatic stress disorder: Integration of biological and psychosocial aspects
María Dolores Braquehais¹ and Leo Sher².
¹Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain; ²Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York, USA

Chapter 21. Impulsivity: a new concept for an old idea
María Dolores Braquehais.
Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain

Chapter 22. Not Just Another Pretty Face: The Cross-Cultural Perception and Social Ramifications of Facial Attractiveness
Dana Galler.
Yeshiva University, Stern College for Women, New York, New York, USA

Chapter 23. About the Editors

Index