Migratory Grief

This type of grief is an expected emotional reaction to a significant life change that goes beyond relocating to a new physical residence. It involves many additional changes that can be understood as losses, as individuals are compelled to detach from their customs in order to adapt to a new environment with which they may initially feel disconnected

Migration may represent the pursuit of better opportunities through labor mobility for economic development, but it can also result from mass displacement due to poverty, malnutrition, deterioration of public health conditions, fleeing contexts of violence, or the need to escape persecution or conflict.

Voluntary migration carries characteristics of emotional ambiguity, which complicates its recognition both by the individual and by their social environment. It oscillates between the desire to explore, discover new horizons, and pursue professional motivation to improve quality of life, and on the other hand, the longing for what has been lost, the experience of uprootedness, guilt for having “abandoned,” and the need to establish oneself, build community, and reconstruct a sense of belonging in a new and often hostile context.

The intensity, duration, and recurrence of migratory grief depend on various personal, occupational, economic, and climatic factors, as well as the conditions of displacement, the level of preparation for change, the presence or absence of psychosocial resources, and the cultural distance between the country of origin and the host country.

Regardless of whether migration is forced or voluntary, migrants face the perception of a world that requires constant vigilance to adjust to multiple demands across different domains:

·       Understanding national, regional, and local regulations

·       Adapting to new flavors and textures of food

·       Managing time differences when communicating with family and friends

·       Longing for the landscapes, colors, scents, light, and climate of the city of origin

·       Being unable to practice their profession from the country of origin

·       Appreciating different musical styles

·       Bearing the systemic grief experienced by loved ones due to their absence

·       Social integration with new habits and cultural values

·       Modification or symbolic/real loss of groups of belonging with whom emotional ties existed

·       Reduced use of the native language

·       Expression of religion

·       Loss of previous social status

·       Understanding cultural differences in emotional expressiveness

·       Facing potential risks to physical integrity

·       Reconsidering identity

·       Experiencing xenophobia (rejection, hostility, or exclusion in the host country) due to prejudice or racism

·       Difficulty finding housing or employment due to discrimination

·       Building new support networks

·       Coping with unpleasant emotions such as guilt, sadness, nostalgia, isolation, confusion, loneliness, and insecurity

Migratory grief may be accompanied by multiple concurrent changes or losses such as divorce, unemployment, the death of loved ones, or loss of health. The greater the accumulation of losses and the lower the capacity to respond, the more the migratory situation entails multiple challenges that are often overlooked, even by migration policies in host countries. These challenges compromise well-being and carry significant psychological implications, such as uncertainty about the future, chronic stress, and the potential development of mental disorders such as anxiety or depression in the urgency to adapt to a new reality.

As a multidimensional experience, migratory grief manifests uniquely in each individual. Therefore, specialized psychotherapeutic spaces, preferably through early intervention, are highly beneficial to facilitate adaptation to the new environment, fostering resilience and strengthening identity reconstruction and re-signification in the face of adversity.

It is important to emphasize that promoting understanding and therapeutic approaches to migratory grief is essential to protect the mental health of migrants and to foster their dignified, empathetic, and sustained inclusion in host societies.