Common Mental Disorders in the Context of International Migration

Abstract

The international immigration has grown the past decades, becoming necessary a comprehension of this phenomenon in different aspects of human life. This study investigates the probability of the presence of Common Mental Disorders (CMD) in Brazilian and Portuguese immigrants living in the city of Geneva/Switzerland, factors associated with nationality, sex, type and time of immigration. It is an exploratory study working with the quantitative approach, with a sample of 509 participants submitted to the bio-social-demographic questionnaire and the Screening Self-Reporting Questionnaire instrument. The data were analyzed through the statistic suite Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 16 for Windows) using inferential and descriptive statistics. The results showed that the probability of presence of CMD was 43.73% among women and 26.63% among men, and 63.69% among participants with the lowest time of immigration, which revealed a significant difference (p<0) for these variables. Concepts of acculturation and mental health are the theoretical inputs that need to be considered in research like in services for assistance that might help and assist the migrant population in a sheltering place.