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. 2023 Apr;25(2):427-435.
doi: 10.1007/s10903-022-01379-9. Epub 2022 Jul 15.

The Mental Health of Adult Irregular Migrants to Europe: A Systematic Review

Fiona Martin  1 , S P Sashidharan  2
Affiliations

The Mental Health of Adult Irregular Migrants to Europe: A Systematic Review

Fiona Martin et al. J Immigr Minor Health. 2023 Apr.

Abstract

The aim of this systematic review is to summarise the existing evidence on the mental health outcomes of adult irregular immigrants (IMs) to Europe. Database (MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsychINFO) searches were conducted according to PRISMA. The risk of bias was assessed using the Appraisal tool for Cross-Sectional Studies. The database searches yielded 2982 results. Eight cross-sectional studies from Western Europe were included, with 1201 participants. The prevalence of mental disorders varied between studies: depression from 8 to 86%; anxiety from 3.1 to 81%; and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from 3.4 to 57.6%. The studies had methodological flaws; in particular a risk of unrepresentative samples. There was methodological heterogeneity, therefore pooling of data, and direct comparisons were not possible. The majority of studies found higher rates of depression, anxiety and PTSD than previous estimates for the general population, and higher rates of depression and anxiety than previous estimates for other migrant groups.

Keywords: Immigration; “mental disorders”; “mental health”; “undocumented migrants”.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
PRISMA flow diagram of the search process
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Prevalence rates of mental disorders for irregular migrant participants in included studies
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. International Organization for Migration. World Migration Report 2020. 2019 (https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/wmr_2020.pdf). Accessed 5 February 2021

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