Migration carries hidden psychological costs, including disruption to identity.
Loneliness and social withdrawal often follow when adaptation becomes overwhelming.
Cognitive immobility can leave individuals emotionally anchored in the past.
Simple routines like self-care and volunteering support resilience and recovery.
What affects us now often shapes who we become later. In recent years, there has been a sharp rise in Africans legally migrating abroad for education, work, or to reunite with family. This wave is commonly known as the Japa syndrome.
While social media is filled with images and videos of successful arrivals and new beginnings, the sad stories behind the scenes are left untold. Many migrants find themselves in difficult, even precarious, situations despite having the proper visas and reaching their intended destinations. They face economic hardship, emotional torture, visa insecurity, and, in many cases, mistreatment as a result of racism.
This piece is not about the horrors faced by migrants in transit through places like Libya, where they are captured and sold as commodities, or in Sinai, where the harvesting of human organs from captured migrants or refugees, often followed by death, is a common tragedy. Instead, it looks at those who followed the rules and reached their optimal destinations, yet still find themselves living in limbo and in precarious conditions.
Canada, for example, recorded over one million international students in 2023, a 29% increase from the previous year. India, China, the Philippines, and Nigeria are the top four sending countries. Within this group, an increasing number of them, including young students, are facing homelessness, drug abuse, loneliness, exploitation, and emotional strain. The experiences of some students like Marcel, Simi, and Peter reveal that life in the so-called promised lands can be far more difficult than expected. Their stories are some of the sad episodes in the lives of those who move abroad for a better life.
Many of these people who travel abroad to study carry these burdens in silence, which are compounded by expectations from home and the fear of being seen as failures. The emotional pressure, hardship, and other challenges in the new environment can lead to social withdrawal, loneliness, and deepening psychological distress. When this happens, they could not only be physically displaced but also mentally stuck in their struggles, unable to move forward even when surrounded by opportunities.
The words of Hakeem, a Nigerian living in the U.K., quoted in a national newspaper, depict this sort of predicament:
‘I became depressed. It was heartbreaking to think that after graduating with a first-class degree, I was now doing odd jobs. My situation hasn’t improved much, but I am doing my best to apply for Ph.D. programmes in the U.S.’
Despite having a first-class degree, he lives in economic precarity and emotional turmoil. He may have believed the U.K. would offer better opportunities, but he plans to relocate to the U.S., having lost faith in the U.K. as a promised paradise. Will the U.S. be any better? Events there suggest otherwise. He is not alone; thousands like him across the U.K., the U.S., and Canada face similar realities.
According to U.K. government data, the top five non-EU nationalities that migrated to the U.K. between 2022 and 2023 were Indians (253,000), Nigerians (141,000), Chinese (89,000), Pakistanis (55,000), and Ukrainians (35,000). Many arrived with high hopes, hopes that have since been tested or broken. Most often, these challenges go beyond individuals’ experiences. Married couples and families also feel the strain, as financial pressure, unstable housing, and emotional stress take a toll on their relationships. Some with children, are now struggling to maintain a decent standard of living and keep their relationships intact.
The Broken High Hopes The problem and challenge associated with these sad episodes in the lives of these people lie not just in escaping such horrific events or life experiences for a seemingly better life, but also in the psychological damage inflicted along the way. In one of our studies, we did show that traumatic experiences, particularly those tied to migration, can lead to a “mental immobilisation” to the past, “the persistent re-experience and reconstruction of past events or life experiences in locations that had been left behind,” and a “disrupted sense of identity and home.”
Many migrants find themselves in a situation where who they are no longer reflects who they were before the journey, nor does it align with who they are expected to become upon arriving in their new environment. For some, the choice becomes painful: remain in a cycle of hardship and uncertainty, or return home and face the perceived shame of unmet expectations. The result is often a disrupted sense of identity and home. This internal disconnection can erode self-worth, not only in the present, but even after their socio-economic circumstances improve.
For people like Marcel, Simi, or Peter, the result may be a gradual loss of identity and belonging. They may no longer recognise who they once were or hoped to become. Survival becomes the priority, and each day is lived on uncertain terms.
For couples, the difficulty is doubled. Each partner may struggle to accept their new identity, let alone that of the other. Without this mutual recognition, holding the relationship together becomes increasingly difficult.
Another common pattern is the persistent re-experiencing and reconstruction of the past. For those whose new reality falls short of the imagined paradise, their earlier stages of life, no matter how imperfect it was, can begin to feel like a lost haven. To make sense of the disappointment or disillusionment, the mind may unconsciously retreat to past experiences as a form of coping mechanism, which could work temporarily.
Over time, mental simulations of the past can shift from comforting to distressing, during which the mind repeatedly replays earlier experiences, that may heighten anxiety and fuel depressive thoughts, thereby prolonging a sense of disconnection from the present.
In relationships, partners may begin to feel emotionally unrecognisable to one another, as unresolved memories and unmet expectations quietly reshape the dynamics of the bond between them. This persistent mental simulation can lead to mental immobilisation to the past, where the individual becomes stuck in an idealised or distorted past. Over time, this disconnection from the present can distort reality and contribute to severe mental health challenges, including stress, depression, and, in some cases, psychosis. These are some of the hidden costs of moving abroad in the hope of a better future.
Breaking Free from the Hidden Costs of Mobility
Efforts to support affected individuals must include strategies to help them cope with cognitive immobility. Cognitive immobility is a stressful mental entrapment in one’s past life.
Be it integrating newly arrived refugees, reintegrating soldiers returning from war zones, supporting those forced to flee their countries, or helping the bereaved who have lost loved ones or ancestral homes, it is essential to recognise that their past experiences might continue to shape their present. Recognising this is key to preventing individuals from becoming cognitively stuck in the past.
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