When a person prepares to move to New Zealand, he / she has to study a great deal of information. Both about the country and the nuances of immigration in general. We are not professional psychologists, but psychology is of a great importance especially in such a thing as an immigration. We encounter a large number of opinions from a wide variety of immigrants. And we witness their ups and downs, successes and failures. This made us want to gather and organize this information, and adapt it based on our own experience and personal observations.
Immigration often ranks among the most stressful life events. Almost on one level with the loss of a loved one. We can’t say that this is relevant to everyone. But we do believe that people should be mentally and emotionally prepared for the challenges they might face during this process.
Psychology of immigration
We’d like to point out that our goal here is to speak specifically about Immigration. That is, what people go through after arriving to a new country. The Psychology of Emigration is a different topic. Emigration concerns the motivation to leave, the emotional ties to one’s homeland, and not the experience of settling into a new place. In simple words, immigration is about arrival, while emigration is about departure.
The psychology of immigration is relatively young sphere. They start to study it somewhere in the end of the 20th century. In our opinion, many aspects still lack in-depth research. Nevertheless, we’ve read a number of publications on the topic and decided to share with you a kind of adaptation, a summary of what we’ve read, what we’ve gone through personally, and what we have been observing during 14 years of living as an immigrants.
Naturally, every person is unique, and a lot depends on their emotional makeup. Another important factor is how well-prepared a person is for the transition. There is something called pre-adaptation, during which a person studies the future host country. Its culture, customs, day-to-day life, and more. In many cases, this stage helps people either commit more confidently or reconsider not only their destination, but even the idea of immigration. We also believe it’s helpful to understand the typical stages one may go through in this challenging process.
So, in general, we believe the following stages are the most realistic.
Stage One – Emotional
This stage is characterized by either a state of infatuation or, conversely, shock and rejection. We’ve seen both scenarios. In the first case, it’s the classic “rose-colored glasses” effect. For many, immigration is a long-anticipated and difficult process to organize, so when the paperwork and planning are finally behind them, they feel relieved and euphoric upon arrival.
In the second case, due to low adaptability, unrealistic expectations, or lack of psychological preparedness, a person may go into a state of shock from being outside their familiar environment. We even knew someone who returned home just two days after arriving in New Zealand, claiming he had already “figured everything out,” and couldn’t stand that he couldn’t get a proper food he got used to at home . But in truth, it’s impossible to form an objective opinion about any place at this stage.
This period can last from a few days to a few weeks. Some people may skip it entirely, if their pre-adaptation phase was properly done.
Stage Two – Tourist or Initial Phase
This is when you begin exploring your new environment on a surface level. Everything seems new and interesting: infrastructure, people, customs, nature, and so on. These surprises can be both positive and negative. At this early stage, you may form a misleading opinion about the country. And since emotions are still running high, many people feel compelled to share their experiences. Thus often spreading a distorted view to others.
This phase may last several weeks to a few months, depending on your personality and the specifics of your move.
Stage Three – Orientation
Now you start getting into the details of everyday life and settling down. You dive into the more practical aspects of living in a new country. This is when the problems of this unfamiliar world start to become more visible. Stress levels typically rise, as you have to start from scratch in many areas. Back home, everything was familiar. You knew everything, whom to ask, where to go, how to fix problems. In a new environment, you feel vulnerable.
This stage is when most people’s mental states are truly tested. Stress begins to color your perception of the world around you. You may become increasingly frustrated with the flaws of the new country or the challenges of your new life.
This period may last several months. Based on our observations of others, it can stretch to a year. In some cases studying, working, travelling around the country may help to go through this stage more quickly.
Stage Four – The Most Difficult: Depression
Some sources claim that everyone experiences this stage to some degree. Others suggest that around 80–90% of immigrants go through it. Either way, the chances that you’ll face this stage are very high. The depressive mood, caused by the stresses of the previous stage, can lead to a deep emotional slump.
Moreover, this is the stage where many people break down. They begin to feel that they made the wrong decision. They lose sight of their initial motivation for emigrating, why have they even chosen it. This often leads to a phase of denial and rejection. The new country starts to feel completely foreign and even hostile. Though, in reality, it is often they themselves who are projecting hostility, while the country remains as it always was.
Reaction
People react differently. Not always, but often, couples break up and families fall apart. Some people turn to alcohol, which is a disturbingly common problem among immigrants. Others express their stress through aggression. In an attempt to reduce the pressure of living in an alien environment, people often seek out fellow nationals either in real life or, more commonly, online. It’s especially in virtual spaces where this aggression tends to surface.
Due to personal frustration, people begin to seek out provocative topics or create them themselves. They become actively engaged in spreading negativity. So next time you encounter a rude troll online, there’s a good chance that person is simply going through a rough time in life.
What’s even more interesting is that many of these people genuinely see themselves as honest, open, and even friendly individuals. We’ve witnessed striking transformations where truly intelligent, kind, and strong individuals became overly combative toward people and community around them. Especially when others disagreed with their views.
We also came across some interesting information about how women tend to respond to this kind of stress. According to some surveys many immigrant women experienced a noticeable decline in interest of being good-looking or attractive for even their life-partner / spouse / husband. We can’t say to what extend this is true or relevant for the majority. However, this may be connected to their lack of understanding or acceptance of the mentality in the new society.
Irritability, withdrawal into oneself or into one’s own community
At some point, due to personal and professional instability, a process of substitution begins. People start to show off and try to present themselves as more successful or important than they are, often displaying an obviously inflated self-esteem. Naturally, with this mindset and the emotional rollercoaster, an objective view of reality becomes nearly impossible. And it’s very hard to change your own perspective, when they are fully convinced that the country, the people, or anything else are to blame for their problems.
In reality, the ability to move through this stage successfully depends largely on the person’s resilience and adaptability. As well as, to some extent, on how effectively they navigated the previous stage.
The length of this phase varies greatly. Some people manage to get through it within a few months, while others stay stuck in it for years. Some people may even leave the new country entirely without ever overcoming this difficult barrier.
Next Stage – Active Engagement
Not everyone reaches this stage, and people use very different methods to overcome their difficulties. Personal growth and psychological stability often come through the ability to solve problems. Instead of lashing out in anger or blaming everyone and everything around them, a person pulls themselves together and realizes that these are just challenges. And they can overcome it.
Gradually, they start to discover new sources of joy and begin to feel a sense of stability and safety. A sense of humor, awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses, and a healthy attitude toward oneself and the world are extremely helpful during this phase. As a kind of reward for making it through the previous stage, a person gains a new perspective on many things. The process of adaptation begins to solidify, life starts to feel more organized, and their perception of the new country and its people becomes increasingly balanced and realistic.
It’s hard to say how long this stage lasts. But apparently, it can truly last for years.
Final Stage – Biculturalism
I know a few people who have reached this stage. At this point, a person embraces two cultures simultaneously, respecting and valuing both. As a result, their personality becomes enriched, and their worldview expands. During this period, a person is able to critically evaluate both the positive and negative aspects of their environment. You could say that this is when the process of psychological adaptation reaches its successful conclusion.
The stages we’ve described are just our interpretation of the psychological adaptation process during immigration. Some people get stuck in certain stages longer than others. Somebody may almost completely skip all the stages, and don’t even notice them. There’s also a possibility of going through the same stage more than once, as life and personality development are never linear.
During such a challenging transition, the mind often employs various self-defense mechanisms: repression, avoidance, aggression, suppression, denial, projection, isolation, and so on.
Psychology: factors of Adaptation
While studying this topic, we figured out that there are both objective and subjective factors that influence psychological adaptation. Among the objective factors are the country of arrival, country of departure, language, level of social and economic security, the nature of the local culture, and several others.
Subjective factors, on the other hand, mainly include the psychological structure of the individual, their perception, thinking style, emotional regulation skills, and overall adaptive capacity.
Examples of high adaptability can include a number of personal traits such as communication skills, the ability to interact with new people, willpower, trainability, problem-solving abilities, healthy self-perception, diligence, discipline, self-control, and resilience to psychological stress. Another important and beneficial trait is creativity, which contributes to personal development, the capacity for change, and the ability to let go of stereotypes.
We can’t tell you how to “skip” any of the stages or how to go through them faster. It’s impossible to create one universal rule for everyone.
The speed of adaptation also depends on a person’s background, their legal status (which influences expectations and can often hinder smooth integration), as well as their profession, language-learning ability, and professional adjustment.
Conclusion
No matter what your starting point is, you need to be prepared for the fact that migration is a serious challenge for your personality. Almost inevitably, there will be highs and lows. Of course not everything, but still a lot depends on your own efforts.
We like the idea that life doesn’t give us challenges we can’t overcome. So, be ready for difficulties. Take care of yourself and of the people around you. Especially those who are going through this journey alongside you.
How to prepare yourself for immigration
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