Traumatic Experience Of Immigrants Essay

The Traumatic Experiences of Immigrants Immigrants across the world receive many types of discrimination and backlash in foreign countries. Many immigrants suffer through traumatic experiences when traveling to a new environment because of the effects xenophobia has on immigrants. Xenophobic actions can greatly impact the lives of immigrants, resulting in emotional pain and also intrusive thoughts. The xenophobic actions immigrants can experience can cause them to feel unwelcome, which can deal a heavy blow to their mental health. Immigrants can also experience xenophobic actions that can turn into physical trauma, leaving them with injuries or bruises. Overall, xenophobia can greatly affect the lives of immigrants when settled in a different

This is represented in What Is Xenophobia, And Is It A Phobia? The article states, “Immigrants traveling to the United States from a South American country may experience racism when they speak their language or attempt to get a job to support themselves in a new location.” This reveals that many immigrants that travel to the United States from a South American country could experience racism because of the way they speak: This could include accents and tone. The way these immigrants get treated by the people in the United States, can affect the way they view themselves; whether it is appearance or tone of voice, to the point where they wish they were different or that if they do not belong in the United States. Another example would be in, Experts Explain Xenophobia—And How It Affects Mental and Physical Health the article states, “depending on the xenophobic act, it can have immediate mental health effects or build over time, Thea Gallagher, PsyD, "Microaggressions—small acts against someone—can make people over time feel depressed, unsafe, dismissed, disconnected, and constantly feeling like they're being threatened," she says.” This exhibits how xenophobic acts can greatly affect the mental state of mind of the person whom the act is against. The xenophobic acts can cause people to feel depressed and

An example of this would be in, The Impact of Xenophobic Violence on the Integration of Immigrants the article states, “the authors demonstrate that individuals in Mozambique were less likely to emigrate to South Africa after a series of xenophobic attacks on immigrants in a number of South African townships.” This reveals that due to xenophobic violence in South Africa, it scared and made people more cautious or less likely to emigrate to South Africa after hearing about the attacks. These attacks had also physically damaged and hurt the immigrants that had emigrated first to South Africa, resulting in not only emotional scars, but physical ones too. Another example of xenophobic violence is in, “They Have Robbed Me of My Life” Xenophobic Violence Against Non-Nationals in South Africa the article states, “mobs of angry rioters throughout South Africa have attacked and harassed non-nationals, blaming them for unemployment, crime, neglect by the government, among other things.” This reveals how horrible non-nationals were treated because of the belief that they were the cause for unemployment, crime, neglect by the government and more. The non-nationals who were blamed were the scapegoats for South Africans, they were also attacked and harassed which would have physically scarred them, and caused them to fear for their lives when the rioters were nearby. My last