Psychological Stressors and Latin American Immigration:
the Influence of Distance, Acculturation and Posttraumatic Stress on the Family
Active Minds Emerging Scholars Fellowship
Daniel P. Koster
Active Minds Emerging Scholar
Inbetweensleep.am@gmail.com
Activeminds.org/daniel
Koster 1
Abstract
Immigrant Mexican and Latin American family units are under fire as a result of the
pressures produced by the unique socioeconomic situation that exists between the United States
and Mexico. Upon entering the U.S., immigrants are subject to a wide range of psychological
stressors that accompany their new lives. Individuals are forced to acculturate—the stressful
process of adapting to the U.S. way of life. This process diminishes the Latin American sense of
familism, an aspect central to Latin American culture, and hence results in the degradation of the
family unit. Placing additional stress on the family, many Latin American migrants suffer from
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This disorder catches acculturating migrants in a vicious
cycle, as familial support is often vital for the disorder’s mending—yet the disorder can be a key
factor in pushing families apart. All the while, PTSD adds additional difficulty to the daily
acculturation process. This paper and project are intended to instigate a national dialogue
regarding how the mental health, physical safety and family unity of migrants are being
disregarded by continuing trends in the immigration policy of the U.S.
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"¡Pobre México! ¡Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos!"
-Porfirio Díaz
“Poor Mexico—so far from God and so close to the United States!”
-(English Translation)
La Frontera: The United States Border with Mexico
The border between the United States and Mexico has become a volatile place, and the
center of controversial discussions on economic, political and humanitarian policy. Mexicans
and other Latin Americans head northward, seeking employment in the U.S. For a migrant, the
border crossing process is life threatening. Additionally, entering the U.S. provides great social
change. Upon changing residence, a migrant traveling north is subject to various psychological
stressors, including the process of acculturation, and in many cases, the symptoms of
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—both of which encourage, and are complicated by the
degradation of the family unit.
In order to grasp a substantial understanding of the ways in which the separation of the
Mexican-American family influences the family members, a foundation as to why geographic
separation is occurring must be established. Two-way Mexican and U.S. immigration has been a
consistent theme of the neighboring countries relationship dating back to the nineteenth century.1
However, in recent years the face of this process has changed. The establishment of the North
Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) can be examined in search of clarity as to why this
might be.
“[Corn] is a crop of extraordinary social importance in Mexico.”2 In fact, corn has been
grown in Mexico for nearly 10,000 years.3 However, in 1994, NAFTA lifted the Mexican
Peter Andrews, “U.S.-Mexico: Open Markets, Closed Border,” Foreign Policy, 103,
(1996), 59.
2
Gustavo Gordillo De Anda, Alain De Janvry, and Elisabeth Sadoulet, “NAFTA and
Mexico’s Maize Producers,” World Development 23, no. 8, (1995), 1349.
1
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government’s tariffs on imported corn. This change was bound to negatively influence 1/5th of
the Mexican population—39 million individuals working in the agricultural sector.4 The
contradictory rhetoric surrounding NAFTA spoke highly of economic integrations—creating a
cooperative dynamic between North American trading powers.5
Without tariffs designed to protect the Mexican agricultural markets from competing with
foreign corn markets, prices of domestic Mexican corn cannot compete with imported U.S. corn.
The results are clear—U.S. subsidizations north of the border result in harmed domestic corn
prices in Mexico. The Mexican agriculture markets struggle against the 10 billion dollars in
subsidizations that the U.S. government supplies to corn growers—driving exported U.S. corn
prices down. In the absence of protective tariffs for vulnerable markets, the Mexican corn
industries crumbled at the seams. As a result, large sections of the population now live in rural
poverty, and look north for refuge.6
This established dynamic has detrimental implications on the citizens of Mexico’s
prospects for self-sustainability, and removing tariff-barriers undermined the county’s push
towards development and economic independence.7 Today, such economic dynamics keep
Mexico in states of dependency—rendering its fate interwoven with and vulnerable to the whim
and will of U.S. financial interests. As a result of such an aggressive economic system, countless
Mexicans find themselves displaced or without a source of income. Intuitively, many look north
Gonzalo Fanjul and Arabella Fraser, “Dumping Without Borders: How US Agricultural
Policies are Destroying the Livelihoods of Mexican Corn Farmers,” Oxfam Briefing paper
(2003), 2.
4
Alejandro Nadal, “Corn and NAFTA: An Unhappy Alliance,” Seedling: the Quarterly
Newsletter of Genetic Resources Action International, June 2000,
http://www.grain.org/seedling/index.cfm?id=14.
5
Peter Andreas, “The Escalation of U.S. Immigration Control in the Post-NAFTA Era,”
Political Science Quarterly, 113, no. 4 (1999), 593.
6
Fanjul and Fraser, 2.
7
Ibid, 25.
3
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towards the U.S. and Mexican border for escape. However, the economically displaced are not
the only individuals attempting to cross the border.
Often, as a result of state-sponsored violence, Mexicans and other Latin Americans are
forced to leave their homes as political refugees. In the Acteal Massacre of 1997, groups
sympathetic to Mexico’s ruling party, the PRI, killed 45 and wounded 25 indigenous citizens in
Chiapas—Mexico’s poorest state. Men, woman, children and the unborn were all killed in this
brutal raid that lashed out against a peaceful church gathering.8 Pro-state paramilitary forces
killed and tortured their opponents in the countryside, displacing 7,000 individuals.9
Exacerbating the situation, while corn prices fell all across Mexico, coffee prices dropped as
well. As a result 70% of the region’s once agriculturally dependent population now lives in
extreme rural poverty.10 Individuals flee northward from regions such as Chiapas, and other
Central American countries in which they are in danger of political violence. Despite reports of
conflict, the U.S. refuses to recognize these individuals as political refugees, hence granting them
rights of political asylum. Instead they are only considered to be economic refugees.11
Individuals fleeing harsh political regimes from various regions in Central America
continue to travel northward, along with Mexico’s displaced. However, since 1994, the
economic effects of NAFTA have displaced many Mexicans economically. As the Mexican
agricultural economy struggles to compete with the U.S. subsidizations, many individuals are
without jobs. Hence, for many, the only option is to travel north and attempt to cross the border
and seek employment in the U.S. In the midst of this chaotic situation, an era of significant U.S.
border policing began.
Richard Stahler-Sholk, “Massacre in Chiapas,” Latin American Perspectives, 25, no.4,
(1998), 1.
9
Ibid, 64.
10
Fanjul and Fraser, 2.
11
Elizabeth G. Ferris, “The Politics of Asylum: Mexico and the Central American
Refugees,” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, 26, no.3, (1984), 358.
8
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Around the time that NAFTA came into effect, “the rapidly expanding U.S. policing
campaign on the southwest border [contrasted] sharply with the rhetoric and practice of U.S.Mexican economic integration.”12 In fact, between 1993-1999, the budget of the United States
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the Border Patrol’s parent organization, increased
from 1.5 billion dollars to 4.2 billion dollars. Unsurprisingly, the size of the Border Patrol
increased 83% from 3,389 agents to 6,213 agents.13
Along with increased funding for organizations that sought to solidify the MexicanAmerican border, initiatives “Operation Hold the Line” in 1993, and “Operation Gatekeeper” in
1994 came into effect.14 Both programs looked to solidify urban border crossing—making a
migrant’s passage impossible and unrealistic in border cities. In the case of Operation
Gatekeeper in San Diego, the border region is enforced up to the desert-clad and mountainous
region of Tecate, Baja California. The mountains and desert of the region are intended to serve
as a natural barrier, deterring attempted border crossers. Such regions were thought to pose a
“mortal danger” that would unconditionally deter migrants from attempting to traverse the
region.15 Any successful deterrence is far from absolute. Instead, individuals and families
continued to attempt to cross the border, only in these “mortally dangerous” regions. Each year,
between 300-400 individuals are found dead along the border, and border patrol agents rescue
12
Andreas, 593.
Ibid, 595.
14
Wayne A. Cornelius, “Death at the Border: Efficacy and Unintended Consequences of
US Immigration Control Policy,” Population and Development Review, 27, no. 4, (2001), 664.
15
Jorge A. Bustamante, “Proposition 187 and Operation Gatekeeper: Cases for the
Sociology of International migrations and Human Rights,” Migraciones Internationales, 1, no. 1,
(2001), 21.
13
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many that barely survive.16 The established dynamic has sparked a heated humanitarian
discussion that rages on, a decade-and-a-half later…
The Psychological Aftermath
Immigration is in many ways a mentally stressful and taxing process. Upon entering the
U.S., an immigrant is forced through the process of acculturation as he or she adapts to U.S.
society. Many immigrants must also tolerate the hardships of anxiety disorders, such as PTSD.
Migrant families are separated and torn apart by both of these realities.
Acculturation and the Family
Foreigners who enter the U.S., legally or illegally, are forced to undergo vast changes in
lifestyle that result from taking up residence in a new culture. The term psychological
acculturation attempts to investigate the process under which an individual adjusts into a new
culture, and sheds aspects of his or her original culture.17 While undergoing the process of
acculturation, and individual must begin to acquire new “social skills,” undergo “cultural
learning,” and internalize “behavioral shifts.”18 “Psychological adaptations to acculturation are
considered to be a matter of learning a new behavioral repertoire that is appropriate for the new
cultural context.”19 Along with learning and internalizing new behaviors and skills, an
individual must also undergo “cultural shedding,” a process in which behaviors that are no
longer desirable or acceptable in the new context are discarded. This is likely to result in
stressful “culture conflict,” where an individual struggles with the acculturation process.20 An
Rob T Guerette and Ronald V. Clarke, “Border Enforcement, Organized Crime, and
deaths of Smuggled Migrants on the United States—Mexico Border,” European Journal on
Criminal Policy Research, 11, (2005), 166.
17
J.W. Berry, and D. L. Sam, Handbook of Cross-Cultural psychology: Social Behavior
and Applications, chapter 2, Acculturation and Adaptation (Needham heights: Allyn & Bacon,
1997), 294.
18
Ibid, 298.
19
Ibid, 298.
20
Berry and Sam, 298.
16
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individual who is struggling with “culture conflict” can also be said to be suffering from “culture
shock,” or “assimilation stress.” This may result in depression, anxiety and familial tension.21
There are various categories of individuals who undergo the process of acculturation.
These include voluntary immigrants, sojourners, refugee and asylum seekers. 80% of global
refugee and asylum seekers are located in Africa and Asia. 22 However, many Latin American
migrants most appropriately fit this classification considering that the members of this group
often leave their homeland unwillingly, and are forced north by factors outside their control—
such as the aforementioned economic pressure and armed conflict…
The Mexican-American family dynamic changes dramatically after entering the U.S. At
the heart of this shift is the rate at which individuals acculturate. Children have a tendency to
acculturate faster than adults do.23 This disparity can be accounted for by the fact that children
are more malleable, and hence more open to learn new things. Mature individuals have often
spent most of their lives in the country that they have entered from. As a result, it is harder for
them to undergo “cultural shedding,” and they are hence slower and less likely to drop old
traditions and tendencies for the sake of adjusting to life in the U.S. In fact, older customs and
norms are retained because of the comfort they generate…24
The idea of familism is often considered in conjunction with acculturation. “Familism
involves a deep ingrained sense of the individual being inextricably rooted in the family…and is
considered to be one of the most important factors influencing the lives of Latinos.”25 However,
as individuals acculturate, levels of familism are found to decrease. Familism is found to be
stronger in first-generation parents than in their children, implying that the young shed feelings
21
Ibid, 298.
Ibid, 309.
23
Bacallao and Smokowski, Costs of getting ahead, 52.
24
Ibid, 53.
25
Ibid, 53.
22
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of familism quicker than the old. Education has also been found to decrease familism.26 As the
young decrease in feelings of familism, they are more likely to demonstrate more negative
adolescent behaviors, causing heightened family tension.27
The fact that progress through acculturation decreases levels of familism, a factor that is
central to, and is in many ways the essence of the Latino family, is trouble for migrant family
units. It can be seen how the tension created by different paces in which older and younger
family members acculturate is exacerbated by the paralleled speed at which they shed feelings of
familism. Additionally, parents who have granted their children a chance at a U.S. education,
something that they would not likely sacrifice, are unintentionally contributing to the family gap
created by divergent rates of acculturation and familism. In many ways, it can be seen how by
merit of innate differences between individual members of a family, it is inevitable that life in a
new land will provide drastic challenges for families—if not rip them apart.
Acculturation: Separation and Reunion
[Excluded]
The Dangers of Immigration
Crossing the Mexican border into the U.S. has become a drastically more dangerous and
frightening endeavor than it once was. In many cases, increased security efforts put forth on
behalf of the U.S. changed the dynamic from an issue of illegal immigration via foot traffic or an
easy vehicle ride to an issue of human smuggling. Human smugglers, often called coyotes, use
various risky and dangerous modes of transportation.28 Quite often, the risky nature of such
transit results in the death or serious injury of migrants. Openly subjected to the elements,
migrants are often killed, or almost killed, by the following conditions: heat exposure, cold
26
Bacallao and Smokowski, Costs of getting ahead, 53.
Bacallao and Smokowski, Acculturation in Adolescents, 662.
28
Guerette and Clarke, 166.
27
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exposure, drowning, motor vehicle accidents, trains or confined spaces.29 It is not uncommon
that coyotes, often leading a group of several immigrants through treacherous natural terrain, will
fail to find an injured migrant medical attention—even if the individual is mortally wounded.
Slowing down might undermine a Coyote’s potential for profit by increasing the group’s risk of
being apprehended by the border patrol or by causing the group to miss a pickup time in the
U.S.30
While 300-400 migrants are found dead each year, the bodies recovered are of both sex,
and encompass all ages.31 A certainty can be taken away from the anecdotal stories of those who
nearly died in crossing, and the stories told by the bodies recovered. Crossing the MexicanAmerican border with or without a Coyote is a horrifying and physically exerting situation: one
filled with death and danger. Such a horrifying experience is bound to be scarring—resulting in
a complex and complicated psychological aftermath.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Ravaged Demographic
Refugee and asylum seekers, the category of traveler in which most Latin American
migrants should be classified due to the political and economic pushes behind their relocation,
are often impacted by anxiety disorders such as PTSD.32 Due to the presence of violence in their
homelands, or often the conditions of their travel, these individuals may have experienced preacculturative trauma that often result in PTSD.33 Many Mexican-Americans suffer from PTSD,
and hence this psychological burden’s impact on the lives of these individuals is vital to
understand. Studies suggests that Hispanic-Americans, a group that umbrellas MexicanAmericans, may be more likely to develop PTSD than are other U.S. demographics. It is
29
Ibid, 166.
Ibid, 172.
31
Ibid, 167.
32
Berry and Sam, 310
33
Ibid, 310.
30
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estimated that nearly 25% of Hispanics that flee to the U.S. have or develop PTSD.34 This
contrasts to the 8% of the entire adult population of the U.S. that is thought to have the
disorder.35 Culturally, Hispanics are less likely to seek treatment for such disorders than are
Caucasians.36
This tendency to avoid therapy poses a significant problem, especially considering some
of the circumstances leading up to and forcing members of this demographics to immigrate—
specifically armed homeland conflict in Mexico or Central America. Additionally, the violent
and dangerous border regions pose another filter through which migrants are subject to traumatic
events, increasing their likelihood of developing PTSD that may go untreated. As discussed
below, PTSD can have far reaching and detrimental impacts on an individual’s personal life,
family life, and ability to acculturate.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) released by the
American Psychiatric Association serves as the benchmark for diagnosing psychological
disorders. There are countless stressful situations that can result in an individual developing
PTSD. However, to set specifications, generally speaking to develop PTSD, an individual has
“(1) experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or
threatened death or serious injury, or threat to the physical integrity of self or others… [and] (2)
the person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.”37 Many migrants
experience these types of threatening situations while crossing the border, or these experiences
prompted them to travel to begin with.
Arthur W. Blume and others, “Alcohol use and Comorbid Anxiety, Trauma Stress and
Hopelessness among Hispanics,” Addictive Behaviors, 34, (2009), 710.
35
American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (4th ed., text rev.), Washington, DC, 2000, 466.
36
Blume and others, 710.
37
American Psychiatric Association, 468.
34
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Considering many Mexican-Americans are already prone to develop PTSD, and migrants
are likely to experience traumatic situations in transit, the implications of living with the disorder
should be understood. For an individual to be diagnosed with a psychological disorder the
symptoms must cause “clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupation, or other
important areas of functioning.”38 While the DSM-IV-TR lists many symptoms, the following
highly impact a migrant with PTSD’s life while acculturating in the U.S.: (1) re-experience of
the traumatic experience in ways such as thinking about trauma while attempting unrelated tasks,
recurrent dreams, and/or illusions and hallucinations of the event’s recurrence, etc.39 (2)
Individuals with PTSD will also avoid talking about the experience as a result of the pain it
produces. (3) Migrants with PTSD may feel detached from others, and they may be unable to
experience love as they once did. (4) Another symptom of PTSD is a feeling of a shortened
future. These individuals will feel unmotivated to seek employment, love, and other forms of
social success.40
PTSD and Immigrants: a Connection to Acculturation and the Family
Innately, acculturation is considered to be a risk factor for the development of PTSD.
Individuals with low levels of acculturation, who are not highly acclimated into their new
county’s culture, are found to be at greater risk for PTSD.41 One of the primary reasons for this
is thought to be that they are denied access to social support networks in their host country, such
family support.42 This has far-reaching implications for the demographic in focus, especially
considering the geographic divide established and maintained between families, and the high
likelihood of PTSD in Hispanics. The connection between acculturation and PTSD is accepted,
38
American Psychiatric Association, 468.
Ibid, 468.
40
Ibid, 468.
41
Ching J. Chang and others, “Acculturation, Psychiatric Comorbidity and Posttraumatic
Stress Disorder in a Taiwanese Aboriginal,” Soc Psychaiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 44, (2009), 60.
42
Ching and others, 60.
39
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but has not been widely studied.43 A demographic such as Mexican-Americans would serve as a
prime group for further investigation…
PTSD greatly impacts a family. An individual suffering from this mental disorder begins
to feel highly detached form those around him or her. Additionally, these individuals lose the
ability to experience sensations such as love.44 Depression and alcohol abuse are often comorbid
with PTSD.45 These factors may cause an individual to stray in his commitment to family when
he otherwise might not have, be the family in the U.S. or back home. Hence, it can be concluded
that these symptoms of PTSD have the potential to exacerbate familial conflict and tension that
results from the stress of acculturation.
For an adult male or female, raising and unifying a family under the occupying pressures
of PTSD is a remarkably difficult task. Additional stress it placed on the family if a child is
subject to these psychological symptoms. When a member of the family begins to act
unexpectedly, other members of the family will struggles to deal with and understand the
changes in his or her behavior. Considering that it is unlikely for members of this demographic
to seek therapy, the family dynamic will continue to struggle.46
Finally, the reciprocal relationship between acculturation and PTSD should be
emphasized. PTSD results in psychological changes that make it difficult for an individual to
maintain familial and loving connections.47 During the process of acculturation, an individual is
often distanced from familial support networks that are necessary to combat the disorder.48 As
the disorder remains untreated and the symptoms are not mediated due to lack of family support,
the gap between family members will increase or remain the same. In essence, an acculturating
43
Ching and others, 53.
American Psychiatric Association. 468.
45
Berry and Sam,310.
46
Blume and others, 710.
47
American Psychiatric Association, 468.
48
Ching and others, 60.
44
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migrant suffering from PTSD is caught in a vicious cycle considering how acculturation makes
recovering from PTSD more difficult, and the symptoms of PTSD further complicate the
acculturation process.
Conclusion
[Excluded]
 Thanks for reading! 
Koster 14
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Koster 15
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