This study is part of a more significant project on Brazilian immigration to the U.S. It extends knowledge in the area of immigration scarcely studied, the one about immigrants who have permanent resident immigration. The objective is to provide insight into the emotional experience of those immigrants, more specifically, Brazilian immigrants in the U.S. The psychosocial approach explored the personal, social, and relational factors involved in this experience. Methodologically, it was used the Free Association Narrative Interview (FANI), a transferential narrative considering all the interviews, and the Psychoanalytic Informed Group Supervision to analyze the material via psychoanalytic interpretation. The common theme identified was “The Ordeal of Immigration,” and it was organized around the belief that living abroad leads to different losses. This theme was explored using Winnicott's maturational processes theory and the facilitating environment (1971) and the acculturation theory from Berry (1980). The discussion revealed an emotional experience that ranges in a continuum, with participants starting their journey considering immigration the best option and carrying some expectations and needs. The acculturation strategies (marginalization, separation, assimilation, integration) used to handle immigration were modulated by the participant's emotional maturity, social support, language skills, and employment status.

Background: Currently, immigrant parents and their children amount to 26% of the U.S. population (Esterline & Batalova, 2022), with many facing stressors related to acculturation, leading to greater physical and psychological distress. Objectives: The current study is a scoping review of extant literature on Latin American families’ experience of acculturative stress(AS) for (1) identifying precursors to AS, (2) evaluating its impact on physical and psychological health, and (3) identifying protective processes serving as buffers, in hopes of revealing how experiences may differ by individual and group levels based on personal and sociocultural characteristics. Search strategy: Through six databases, the criteria to filter the studies included, peer reviewed studies with immigrant families from Latin American countries, and mention of acculturative stress as a major subject. Studies were also included if they were published within the 2002 March 2022 timeframe to highlight an era of anti immigrant sentiment, post establishment of the Homeland Security Act. Results: Preliminary results were identified using codes for: 1) theoretical and conceptual frameworks utilized for the study of AS, 2) methodological approaches in the study of AS, 3) causes of AS, 4) manifestation of AS in families’ health, and 5) coping strategies amidst the navigation of AS.

Beliefs about emotion malleability (whether emotions can be controlled) and emotion control (whether emotions should be controlled) are related to clinically relevant outcomes including anxiety and depression. Specifically, higher emotion malleability and lower emotion control beliefs have been linked to better health outcomes. Culture strongly influences which emotions people value and how they choose to express or regulate them. However, little research has investigated the link between emotion beliefs and mental health outcomes across cultures. The present study explored and compared emotion beliefs in two of the fastest growing populations in the United States–Mexican and Chinese American immigrants–and the relationship between these beliefs and depressive symptoms. In a sample of 321 Mexican American and Chinese American immigrant parents from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, emotion malleability beliefs were associated with lower depressive symptoms in Chinese Americans, but not Mexican Americans. Furthermore, emotion control beliefs were not associated with depressive symptoms in either group, demonstrating that emotion control values affect individuals from collectivistic cultures differently than those from independent cultures. Given that emotion beliefs underlie emotion regulation processes and beliefs about emotion malleability serve as the premise of treatment models like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, findings from this study can inform culturally inclusive psychotherapy.

In 2020, around 5.5 million Muslims were living in Germany. Muslims are very heterogeneous in many respects (for example, on the level of religious beliefs or migration-related diversity). Anti-Muslim attitudes and Islamophobia have become a crosscutting phenomenon in Germany that meanwhile affects all areas of society and is developing its dynamics – and can thus be understood as group-focused enmity. Group-focused enmity can be directed against different groups and represent a barrier to the realization of a coexistence characterized by diversity. Group-focused enmity is thus a stable pattern of prejudice and hostility on the side of a part of the population, which can be seen as a direct barrier to the negotiation of belonging and equality. Group-focused enmity was assessed on the facets of devaluation of refugees, anti-immigrant attitudes, and anti-Muslim attitudes. Results of representative data surveys in Germany from the project “ZuGleich - Belonging and Equivalency” (granted by Mercator Foundation Germany to Andreas Zick, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence) will be presented. Group-based enmity has increased in all years, with hostility toward Muslims increasing the most. Implications for future research on the political-psychological level will be discussed.