Migration and Belonging

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by LOUIS GUTTMAN Fitting it is for the World Mental Health Year that a funda­ mental research monograph should appear, devoted to one of the universal - but perhaps inadequately recognized - problems of our times: mental health and personal adjustment problems of immigrants. Many types of demographic data on migration are readily available from a variety of official sources. Social scientists who have addressed themselves to the subject have many plausi­ ble hypotheses about sociopsychological factors leading to mi­ gration and the effects of migration upon later adjustment. Conclusions based upon empirical psychological and psychiatric research are few and far between. Is it true that a person who is willing to depart his homeland voluntarily for another country must be better adjusted than others in order to be able to brave the idea of making the change? Or is the converse true? While it would be of great interest to study potential migrants before they leave, and the conditions under which they leave, the present monograph is devoted to research at the other end of the problem. What type of immigrant adjusts well after arrival in the new country, and under what conditions? The unusual situation of Israel in absorbing, in a short span of time, people from many countries of origin afforded a unique opportunity for this type of study.