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The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of mental health among Angolan migrants living in Portugal. Three research questions guided this work: What is the influence of demographic factors on the mental health of Angolan migrants? What is the influence of acculturation factors on their mental health? What is the influence of adaptation factors on their mental health?

The sample consisted of 252 Angolan migrants living in Portugal (50.8 percent females) with a mean age of 36 years. The mean duration of stay in Portugal was 21 years.

The predictive factors – demographic, acculturation and adaptation factors – were significantly associated with Angolan migrants’ mental health. However, acculturation and adaptation factors accounted for a larger proportion of the explained variance in mental health problems than demographic factors. The major predictors of mental health problems were sociocultural adaptation, perceived discrimination and loneliness. Implications of the findings for future research and psychosocial interventions are discussed.

This study shed some light on the predictive factors of mental health problems among adult Angolan immigrants in Portugal, a previously neglected group of migrants in the research literature. Adding to existing knowledge on the mental health outcomes of migration, the findings suggest that, for this group, sociocultural adaptation, perceived discrimination and loneliness were the main predictors of psychological problems, rather than demographic factors. This evidence may be useful in the development of psychosocial interventions and policy to support Angolan migrants in their adaptation to Portuguese culture.

The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the discourses on migrant acculturation and migrants’ mobile phone communication, in order to examine the inclusiveness of communication-acculturation research in the recent years.

The paper draws on from 102 qualitative interviews (48 Malayali, 26 Bangla, 17 Tamil and 11 Telugu) for a larger research project that investigated the role of mobile phones in migrant acculturation in Singapore. Respondents were selected using a combination of purposive and snowball sampling methods. The respondents had been in Singapore for varying amount of time: from one month to 19 years.

The analysis of the discourses on migrant acculturation and mobile phone communication revealed that labor migrants were excluded on the basis of their temporary status and apprehensions on work productivity. The mobile usage prohibitions that existed in work sites were hinged on similar discourses that stereotyped the labor migrants. The emancipatory metaphor that has been at the center of research on migrants’ mobile phone usage and acculturation needs to be replaced with a critical discourse perspective.

The data were originally collected for a research project that approached the phenomena of acculturation and mobile phone appropriation from a positivist perspective, whereas this paper analyzed the data to critically examine the discourses that supported the premise of the project itself. Due to this, the findings presented in this paper have limited scope for generalization.

The paper critiques the research trends in migrant acculturation and mobile phone communication and suggests a possible alternative that goes beyond the “transcendental teleology” that underpins discourse and practice.

The integration of migrants into the society of the host country is one of today’s greatest challenges. Recent increases in the number of newcomers are creating great challenges for European nation-states that are receiving migrants, especially for those countries that traditionally do not define themselves as multicultural societies. In order to help newcomers’ economic and social integration into the host country, their specific characteristics, which result from their linguistic and cultural background, need to be considered. Furthermore, migration is often stressful, and it often acts as a stress factor that contributes to lowered mental health (Bhugra, 2004). Thus, migrants’ inclusion into the mental health-care system of the host country is not only essential to prevent lowered mental health, but might serve as an indicator of their integration into the country’s national institutions as well.

This chapter examines migrants’ subjective notions of integration and their psychological well-being in Germany. The first part of this chapter reviews previous research on migrants’ integration in Germany and presents theoretical frameworks that aim to explain migrants’ integration and psychological adaptation. The second part of the chapter describes an empirical study conducted among psychotherapy patients with a migrant background, and discusses migrants’ subjective notions of integration and psychological well-being in the German mental health-care system.

Community gardens are increasingly used as interventions during the resettlement of refugees and other migrants. Little is known about how garden programs might support their mental health and wellbeing. Given the links between climate change and forced migration, community gardens are especially relevant, as they can also support climate change mitigation. This study aims to document psychosocial outcomes of gardening programs for refugees and migrants, and mechanisms leading to these outcomes.

The authors searched major databases and the grey literature up to 2021, resulting in the inclusion of 17 peer-reviewed and 4 grey literature articles in a thematic, qualitative analysis.

Four consistent themes arose from the analysis: community gardening programs promoted continuity and adaptation (81% of articles), social connectedness (81%), overall wellbeing (95%) and a sense of meaning and self-worth (67%). The results suggest that community gardens can strengthen psychosocial pillars that are key to the recovery and resettlement of refugees and migrants. The land-based and social nature of community gardening may enable connections to the land and others, nurture a sense of belonging in the host country and provide a link to the past for those from agricultural backgrounds.

Further participatory action research is needed to develop guidelines for the successful implementation of community gardens by resettlement organisations.

This review indicates that community gardens can be effective psychosocial interventions as part of a network of services supporting the resettlement of refugees and migrants.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of social capital among International Medical Graduates (IMGs). It will specifically examine bridging social capital and greater intercultural communication which provides IMGs access to the wider community and plays a key role in cross-cultural adaptation and acculturation.

A review of the literature.

An Australian wide shortage of doctors has led to an increased reliance on the recruitment of IMGs. As IMGs migrate, they may encounter different meanings of illness, models of care and a number of social challenges. Nevertheless, greater cross-cultural adaptation and acculturation occurs through bridging social capital, where intercultural communication, new social networks and identity aids integration. This process produces more opportunities for economic capital growth and upward mobility than bonding social capital.

Concerns regarding immigration, appropriate support and on-going examination processes have been expressed by IMGs in a number of studies and policy papers. However, there is very little insight into what contributes cross-cultural adaptation of IMGs.

As IMGs migrate to not only a new country, but also a new health system and workplace they arrive with different cultural meanings of illness and models of care. These differences may be in contrast to the dominant western medical model, but often bring positive contributions to patient care in the new environment. In addition, improving bridging social capital provides IMGs access to the wider community and has been demonstrated to play a key role in cross-cultural adaptation and ultimately acculturation.

Previous research has documented the ways that migration contributed to the rise of Hong Kong as a global city by the early 1990s. Much academic attention has been paid to the causes of labor migration and issues related to the adaptation of migrant workers in Hong Kong. Based on a review of such studies, the purpose of this paper is to describe three representative groups of migrant workers in Hong Kong and discuss how research on migrant workers in Hong Kong has provided new insights to the global city literature and to the study of development and migration.

This paper reviews published works regarding migrant workers in Hong Kong since 1996. Discussion focuses on three representative groups: high-skilled immigrants from developed countries, low-skilled migrant workers from less developed regions and mainland Chinese immigrants.

Findings suggest that the migration patterns and challenges of the adaptation of migrant workers in Hong Kong correspond largely to the social polarization thesis proposed by global city literature. However, Hong Kong is unique compared to core global cities in the USA and Western Europe due to its special power relationship with mainland China and its colonial history, which have a significant impact on immigrants’ decision to migrate and their post-migration integration.

This review paper provides a better understanding of migration and development, and highlights new factors that contribute to reasons for migration and challenges of integration for migrant workers in the host society.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative employment levels of return migrants in Finland with regard to their re‐adaptation into the labour market.

Longitudinal census data distinguished Finns who had lived abroad and returned to Finland. These return migrants are compared with non‐migrants with regard to employment levels, using logistic regression models that account for sex, age, education, mother tongue and place of residence.

Both male and female return migrants have odds of employment that are only about half those of their non‐migrant counterparts. The employment differential is stable over time and, consequently, not particularly sensitive to changes in the macroeconomic environment. Relative employment rates of migrants with short periods abroad and long periods in the home country are somewhat higher than those of other migrants, but still lower than those of non‐migrants. Difficulties in readapting into Finnish society are consequently associated with personal characteristics that cannot be observed explicitly but are apparently associated with job‐finding probability.

Considering that Finland at present has no explicit measures directed towards return migrants, it is suggested that this group should be given more policy attention.

The paper provides quantitative evidence that Finnish migrants have substantial difficulties in finding employment in the home country labour market subsequent to return migration, and that these problems cannot be attributed to structural factors.

Extant literature informs that expatriates develop a natural inclination towards host country food with increased acculturation. However, this study argues that expatriates might have divergent goals in different domains of food adaptation (private vs public), which eventually sheds new light on their acculturation process. This paper aims to investigate how expatriate's adaptation in private vis-a-vis public domain influences their food consumption behavior.

This study draws on the optimal distinctiveness theory and domain-specific view of adaptation and tests the food adaptation outcomes of expatriates’ acculturation through social interactions with the local community. A survey was conducted among 120 expatriate newcomers currently living and working in the Middle East.

The findings show that acculturation positively influences food adaptation in the private (local food consumption), whereas its relationship with food adaptation in the public domain (local restaurant visits) assumes an inverted U-shape. Furthermore, the authors find that the latter relationship is negatively moderated by expatriate’s overall experience and positively moderated by uncertainty avoidance, which also unfolds situations when an expatriate follows social identification vis-à-vis differentiation pattern.

This work goes beyond the traditional focus on acculturation through social identification and provides evidence that differentiation effects must also be accounted for. The authors argue and provide empirical evidence that expatriates’ greater social interactions with the local community result in different food adaptation outcomes when private vs public consumption domains are considered. In addition, by analyzing the moderating effects of expatriate experience and uncertainty avoidance, the authors further provide evidence on when social identification vis-à-vis differentiation prevails.