Invited Seminar Talk

“Like a Native”: Ethnic Conflicting Identity and Immigrants’ Mental Health in the Host Country

Roberta Misuraca
Invited Seminar Talk, March 01, 2022

Roberta Misuraca from the Parthenope University of Naples introduces her research project that aims to theoretically and empirically investigate the relationship between the development of immigrants’ "conflicting” identity and their mental health status in Germany.

Abstract

Etienne Balibar wrote a book (2003) entitled "We, the people of Europe? Reflections on Transnational Citizenship", in which he questioned the very meaning of European citizenship, deeply divided between a model of inclusion and exclusion. This intervention questions the very concept of identity and the presence of borders that sanction a clear division between "internal-external", placing in the foreground the issue of the cultural integration of immigrants in the host countries. Migrating is, indeed, a drastic life-changer often associated with a re-shaping of individual identity. The resulting ethnic “conflicting” identity could impact different aspects of immigrants’ lives, heavily changing their mental health.

This research project aims, for the first time, to theoretically and empirically investigate the relationship between the development of immigrants’ "conflicting” identity and their mental health status in Germany. Using a theoretical and empirical, interdisciplinary approach, this new research line aims to fill the existing research gaps, through a greater understanding of the determinants of ethnic “conflicting” identity of immigrants and its relationship with their mental health status in Germany, a greater understanding of how intergroup contacts impact the mental health of immigrants in the host country, through the re-shaping of individual identity, also, answering the following question: which types of policies promote the cultural assimilation of immigrants (allowing us to reduce the burden on their mental health)? This research line intends to go beyond the concept of double identity (native or foreign), introducing the possibility that the individual develops a multiple identity. It will also add a new line of study, contributing significantly to the understanding of the assimilation process of immigrants in the host country and considering, for the first time, from an economic point of view, the implications on their mental health.

Register to Take Part

You would like to attend the Seminar Talk? You are very welcome. Please register by writing an e-mail to office-myrskyla@demogr.mpg.de.

Seminar Talk, March, 1st from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. (Rostock time)