Abstract
BackgroundThe process of immigration is associated with poor mental and physical health. While the workplace represents an important context of social integration, previous studies evaluating the effect of discrimination experienced in the workplace found worse mental health status among immigrants. The aim of this study was to investigate whether self-perceived workplace discrimination has any role in the mental health status of immigrants living and working in Italy, evaluating the contribution of other personal experiences, such as loneliness and life satisfaction.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 12,408 immigrants (aged 15–64) living and working in Italy. Data were derived from the first national survey on immigrants carried out by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat). Mental health status was measured through the Mental Component Summary (MCS) of the SF-12 questionnaire. A linear multivariate linear regression was carried out to evaluate the association between mental health status, self-perceived workplace discrimination, and sociodemographic factors; path analysis was used to quantify the mediation effect of self-perceived loneliness, level of life satisfaction, and the Physical Component Summary (PCS).ResultsMental health status was inversely associated (p < 0.001) with self-perceived workplace discrimination (β:-1.737), self-perceived loneliness (β:-2.653), and physical health status (β:-0.089); it was directly associated with level of life satisfaction (β:1.122). As confirmed by the path analysis, the effect of self-perceived workplace discrimination on MCS was mediated by the other factors considered: self-perceived loneliness (11.9%), level of life satisfaction (20.7%), and physical health status (3.9%).ConclusionsOur study suggests that self-perceived workplace discrimination is associated with worse mental health status in immigrant workers through personal experiences in the workplace and explains the effect of the exposure to workplace discrimination on immigrants’ psychological well-being. Our findings suggest that an overall public health response is needed to facilitate the social integration of immigrants and their access to health services, particularly those services that address mental health issues.
Highlights
The process of immigration is associated with poor mental and physical health
Aim The aim of our study was to evaluate whether selfperceived workplace discrimination has any role in the mental health status of immigrants living and working in Italy, quantifying the contribution of loneliness, life satisfaction, and perceived physical health as mediators of this relationship
We found that a unitary increase of level of life satisfaction and Physical Component Summary (PCS) were associated with a 1.308 probability of increase and a 0.026 decrease in the Mental Component Summary (MCS) score, respectively
Summary
The process of immigration is associated with poor mental and physical health. While the workplace represents an important context of social integration, previous studies evaluating the effect of discrimination experienced in the workplace found worse mental health status among immigrants. Social science and medical research in the past two decades, that conducted in North America, has extensively examined the health patterns of immigrants, who tend to be healthier than the native-born population at the time of their arrival in the country. This so-called “healthy migrant effect”, an advantage that tends to be lost over time, is probably the consequence of the poor socioeconomic conditions experienced by immigrants in the host country [6, 7]. Work is a relevant dimension of the social gradient in health, being one of psychosocial domains that influence lifetime health conditions [10]
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