Coping with stressors: racism and migration

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511543609.044

42 - Coping with stressors: racism and migration

from Part VI - Cultural research and training

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 August 2009

Brendan D. Kelly and

Larkin Feeney

Edited by

Dinesh Bhugra and

Kamaldeep Bhui

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Brendan D. Kelly: Affiliation:
Department of Adult Psychiatry University College Dublin Mater Misericordiae University Hospital 63 Eccles Street Dublin 7 Ireland
Larkin Feeney: Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry St Vincent's Hospital Fairview Dublin 3 Ireland
Dinesh Bhugra: Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
Kamaldeep Bhui: Affiliation:
Barts & The London, Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry

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Summary

EDITORS' INTRODUCTION

Migration is the process by which individuals move to another culture or geographical area for a more or less permanent stay. The experiences of migration are as important in the genesis and maintenance of psychiatric disorders as is the process of migration itself. The views of many researchers and opinion makers do not move beyond the notions of racism, where almost every experience is seen as caused by/influenced by/coloured by racism. Racism is not a recent phenomenon although race itself was identified in the eighteenth century to differentiate between the colonized and their masters. However, Cicero in the fourth century BC was describing the British as lazy and stupid and advising his employer not to employ slaves from Britain. The inherent institutional racism in the Hindu caste system has been going on for millennia without clear clinical and research evidence that rates of psychiatric disorders are raised among lower castes.

Kelly and Feeney explore the challenges of racism and migration to patients, researchers and service providers. For patients, racism and migration do act as stressors to perpetuate (or precipitate) social problems. Their argument follows from epidemiological studies which demonstrate variable rates of various psychiatric illnesses in different ethnic groups. They highlight the ethical and methodological challenges for researchers, especially the problem of definition and cultural adaptation of research tools along with interpretation of findings outside the social and cultural context without community consultation. They point out that there is a paucity of studies examining the precise inter-relationship between biological factors and sociopolitical factors in the aetiology of specific psychiatric illnesses.

Type: Chapter
Information: Textbook of Cultural Psychiatry , pp. 550 - 560

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511543609.044 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2007

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