Rich, G. J., Kuriansky, J., Gielen, U. P., & Kaplin, D. (2023). Psychosocial experiences and adjustment of migrants. In Elsevier eBooks (pp. 443–446). https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-823794-6.00009-8
Abstract:
Aside from its indigenous peoples, all people living in the United States are migrants from other nations and regions around the globe. Whether one is newly arrived in the United States, or whether one is descended from generations of ancestors who immigrated to the United States, the United States today is clearly built from a multicultural, multiethnic brew of peoples. Immigrants and refugees to the United States have made extraordinary contributions to the culture and progress of their adopted homeland. For example, one thinks of Nobel Laureates such as Albert Einstein in physics, Elie Weisel in Peace, Elizabeth Blackburn in Medicine, Mario Molina and Ahmed Hassan Zewail in Chemistry, and Joseph Brodsky in Literature—all immigrants, born in Germany, Romania, Australia, Mexico, Egypt, and Russia, respectively. In fact, over one-third of all U.S. Nobel Laureates in chemistry, medicine, and physics, and over 40% of U.S. Nobel Laureates in general are immigrants (Casanova et al., 2020; Shoichet, 2019). In the arts, as well, one thinks of a long list of immigrants to the United States who achieved international renown, including Russian–born musical composer Igor Stravinsky, Yo-Yo Ma in music performance, born in Paris to Chinese parents, I.M. Pei in architecture, raised in Shanghai, and Dutch-American Willem De Koonig and Latvian-American Mark Rothko in visual arts. Kerwin (2018) also notes how refugees have come to shape and enrich the nation. Of course, there are countless additional examples of famous immigrant figures in diverse fields including sports, film, music, business, and politics, many of whom are household names in the U.S. Even an object that at first appears quintessentially American—such as the Levi’s blue jeans Bruce Springsteen sported on the cover of his classic rock album Born in the USA—has immigrant origins since Levi himself was born in Germany yet started his manufacturing company in San Francisco. Similarly, in the psychology discipline of the editors of this book, one can mention large numbers of eminent elders who are immigrants, from the late German-born Erik Erikson known for his influential theory of human development to the native Israeli Daniel Kahneman who won the Nobel Prize in Economics to Frank Worrell, the Trinidadian-American immigrant who is the current 2022 President of the American Psychological Association. Migrants come to the United States from almost every region of the world, and for a broad range of reasons. Migrating and migration are part of human nature; there appears to be a perennial human drive for peregrinations to find places that are safe, welcoming, and supportive for raising one’s family and achieving one’s dreams through hard work, creativity, and task persistence. This chapter summarizes some key themes that emerge regarding the psychosocial experiences and adjustment of migrants.