Migration and psychiatric adjustment

With the extraordinarily large movements of populations from some of the former Soviet Union states into Western Europe, since their recent membership of the European Union, attention has been focused in recent years on how easy or otherwise it has been for these people to adjust to life in very different economic and social circumstances. It has been estimated that the UK has absorbed up to a million immigrants from Eastern European states since 2004, and an equivalent picture is seen elsewhere; for example, in Switzerland immigrants now comprise nearly a quarter of the population. We consider here the mental health issues faced by those moving to work in other countries, some of whom aim to become citizens, others to gain temporary economic advantage, and yet others to escape persecution and threats to their personal safety in their countries of origin.