Abstract
We approached this chapter by providing frameworks for understanding the migration process, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and mental health and wellbeing of migrants with special focus on migrants of African origin. The Migration Theory of Boswell (Addressing the causes of migratory and refugee movements: The role of the European Union (Working Paper No. 73). United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva. https://www.unhcr.org/3e19ac624.pdf, 2002) was critiqued and principally utilized to explain the root and proximate causes, enabling conditions and sustaining factors of migration with backgrounds in the existing macro, meso and micro theories of migration. The existing theoretical postulations used in explaining the PTSD, wellbeing and mental health of migrants include the Trauma-based Medical Model, Chronic Traumatic Stress Model, Hobfoll’s Conservation of Resources, Stress-coping Framework, Lazarus and Folkman’s Stress Model, Boski’s Theory of Disharmony, Acculturative Theory, Cultural Syndromes, and Attachment Theory. These theories were categorized according to how they accounted for the mental health and wellbeing of both forced and economic migrants during the pre-migration, mid-migration and the post-migration periods. These categorizations may be useful to experts in the management of mental health problems based on each stage of the migration process and motives for migration.
Highlights
Unlike in classical neo-positivist studies, theories, for the present research, are not the basis from which to generate hypotheses, but are the frame for understanding the data
How do we theoretically explain these behaviors and what can be said of their psychological make-up? What is the relationship between stress, mental health and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of these migrations? How do migrants cope upon arrival in their to-be host countries? As we indicated previously, there is no single, well-developed theory of international migration
While the theory tries to provide solutions to EU migration problems, we find it unfortunate that the theory is written from a—by and large—biased Eurocentric point of view and as such neglects many of the central root causes of the problems for Africa migration
Summary
Unlike in classical neo-positivist studies, theories, for the present research, are not the basis from which to generate hypotheses, but are the frame for understanding the data. Boswell’s theory is a fascinating albeit lengthy theory that tries to explain the root and proximate causes, enabling conditions and sustaining factors of forced displacement and economic migration in a global sense. It is a theoretical explanation aimed at providing answers to the European Union’s questions of unauthorized migration and influx of refugees into the EU region. SAP policies have ballooned many African countries into debt distress because according to a report (Allison, 2018), repaying national debt has on averaged tripled as a percentage of national expenditure—from four percent in 2013 to a whopping 12% in 2017 These pressures have generated political insecurity by creating grievances over limited or inequitably distributed resources, or frustration at the declining capacity of states to provide socio-economic security thereby leading to mass migration. The journey towards international borders is made possible by the aforementioned enabling factors of migration
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