College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

Fall 11-21-2023

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Joseph Ferrari, PhD

Second Advisor

Jerry Cleland, PhD

Abstract

Migrants experience significant stresses when transitioning to find a sense of belonging from one country to another (Kirmaryer et. al 2011), particularly when the nature of migration is forced. Language barriers, currency differences, different foods, written and unwritten rules of conduct as well as different climates all contribute to make the acculturative process difficult and stressful (Jackson & Bauder, 2014). Understanding how migrants navigate this process and the resources required to successfully integrate within a new host community is an important area of research both for migrants and the host communities.

Using an archival dataset collected by researchers from the University of Genoa the aim of this presentation is to understand the relationship between psychological home, neighborhood attachment, sense of community and resilience within the migratory context. Our findings indicate that length of stay, and employment positively and significantly predict psychological home. With regards to resilience only psychological home was found to be positively and significantly predictive. Neighborhood attachment and sense of community were found to be highly overlapping concepts that may be seen as multiple measure of the same phenomenon.

The implications of this study continue to highlight the importance of the understudied psychological home construct. For policy makers and community organizations investing in programming that allows people to develop and cultivate a sense of psychological home is an important way to foster resilience in migrants.

Another implication of this study is that investment in existing and further programs and programming to help migrants enter into adequately paid jobs with good conditions can also have indirect effects such as promoting psychological home. Migrants who are able to successfully participate within the workforce are able to exert greater financial power within their host country and have greater opportunities at selecting, investing in and customizing their house thereby increasing psychological home. This has the indirect effect of promoting resilience through psychological home but most likely also promotes resilience through greater social resources and networks being available to the migrant.

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