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Research shows immigrants—particularly refugees and asylum seekers—have elevated risk for PTSD and depression.

Social networks are essential to humans, even the most individualistic among us.

Policymakers should focus on predictability and humanity in immigration processes.

Many legal immigrants experience psychological stress throughout the immigration process. Natural disasters, political instability, religious intolerance, economic hardships, civil wars, and other unfavorable conditions often create intense pre-migration stress in the country of origin (Morey et al., 2018). The shift in residence also entails considerable stress associated with logistics and travel. And then, once immigrants have arrived in the host country, there are more psychological stresses due to changes in social status and disruption of social networks. In the United States, there is another layer of stress because of how our society treats immigrants.

How might we transform the United States legal immigration process so that immigrants don’t face so much psychological stress? To answer this question, I reached out to Andrew Rasmussen, professor of psychology and head of the Culture, Migration, and Community research group at Fordham University. His research focuses primarily on the psychosocial needs and assessment of displaced populations. I asked Rasmussen what I think are the five most important questions that policymakers and community leaders should be asking.

JP: Why is it important for policymakers and community leaders to focus on the psychological stress of individuals immigrating to the United States?

AR: I think this is a central question facing our nation in its 250th year. The current administration's implicit answer seems to be: "We should study immigrants' psychological stress so we can increase it to deter them." But that's probably not the spirit of your question. Studies show immigrants make for healthy, happy workers who work harder and longer in labor-starved industries. Immigrants and their children win a disproportionate share of........

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