A First-Generation American’s Perspective on Community Mental Health
- Kavi Shahnawaz
- Jun 11
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 15
In a sea of social media content that is damaging to the minds of impressionable youth, hustle culture is an increasingly popular online attack strategy. Influencers have brainwashed countless young people into thinking that mental health must be ignored to maximize productivity. To that point, creators falsely claim that working grueling hours will make people too distracted to be sad. This toxic messaging, though not new, has only gotten louder in the digital age. Yet, as a Bangladeshi American, the people in my circle have been victims of this poison long before witnessing it on the internet. We face this kind of pressure on a deeper level, though we know it by a different name: the immigrant mentality.
Depending on the country of origin and time in history, immigrants were generally not brought up in a society that prioritizes mental health as much as the West currently does. Many elders do not even consider mental health to be “real” and call therapy a “waste of time.” Nevertheless, immigrant families feel the need to push their feelings aside in the quest to make a name for themselves. Because of negative socialization and archaic stereotypes, immigrants are made to believe that they have to “earn” their spot in the place that they have relocated to. In turn, they only feel valuable if they can contribute to the economy by holding a position deemed “respectable” by American standards. Then, when they secure employment, they are ridiculed for “stealing American jobs.” More so than any other country, the United States blindsides immigrants by granting them physical access without social inclusion.
My community has numerous stories of isolation as perceived “aliens” on this land. After being conditioned to work like dogs to achieve some arbitrary “American Dream,” immigrants are forced to deal with the repercussions of bottling up their emotions. They have prolonged anxiety from preexisting stressors, including education, work, roadblocks to citizenship, and culture shock. Additionally, a sizable portion of new arrivals have no support system to lean on amid getting acclimated to an unknown territory. Due to the startling nature of settling in a different country, immigrants are especially vulnerable to mental illness. However, they often go undiagnosed and untreated because their mental health is not taken as seriously as that of those born and raised in the United States. This continued disregard for immigrants suggests that they do not care about mental health because their well-being is not of concern to others.
On top of undeniable systemic barriers surrounding affordability and insurance, immigrants rarely seek out therapy since they have a societally reinforced impression that their problems are not important. When my struggles have caused me to question my own safety, my brain has convinced me that mental illness is a minor inconvenience in the journey to achieve my goals—which my parents have sacrificed so much for me to be able to achieve. This thought process is shared by many second-generation immigrants, but is inherently flawed since ignoring the problem is not synonymous with solving it.
Although there has recently been a push for culturally competent mental health care, the vast majority of counseling and psychiatry options are not accessible or relevant to immigrants, whether they have obtained citizenship or not. This issue largely stems from the fact that the longtime dehumanization of immigrants has significantly inhibited them from entering the innately humanistic field of behavioral health. With a lack of immigrant representation among providers, naturalized citizens who could otherwise engage in mental health resources are unmotivated to do so since they do not feel seen, while non-citizens are left in the shadows to burn out.
Overall, mental health discourse must be reframed to recognize immigrants and their specific plight. This shift will inspire structural reform that truly promotes the livelihoods of immigrant communities. Moreover, the scope of mental health treatment must be broadened because it cannot be “patient-centered” unless it accommodates all patients. Immigrants may live here, but this place cannot truly be called their home unless they are welcome in all respects. Everyone must understand that immigrants are not machines, but real people with complex feelings that can be mitigated if they are treated with compassion and accepted unconditionally.
