The psychological consequences of internal migration

Little is known about the effects of migration and mental health in general, however even less is known about internal migration despite the fact that more persons move within their own countries. Population studies predict that there will be a continuous growth in both internal and international migration in the coming years. Within developing countries internal migration has important social and economic consequences. For this paper I use large representative sample of adults residing in Kathmandu, Nepal to investigate the utility of stress process model for understanding effects of migration. Because our sample contains both migrants and non-migrants, we are able to compare the importance of common and unique sources of stress and access to social support as they affect urban dwellers in general. Results show that migrants and non-migrants differ only slightly in socio-demographic makeup. Migrants face more chronic sources of stress and have more social support problems. However, eventful stress is the only direct predictor of distress for both migrants and non-migrants. Lower access to social support indirectly affects migrants’ distress