Study on the causal relationship between cultural adaptation, discrimination and depression of immigrants

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of private and social discrimination on the depression of migrants. By paying attention to the moderating effect of discrimination that controls the impact of cultural adaptation on the depression of migrants, the study aims to overcome the limitations of previous studies that portray migrants' depression issues as migrants’ individual issues and responsibilities of cultural adaptation. The study also emphasizes the characteristics of migrants in Korea who migrate on an individual basis, not on a family basis, by dividing discrimination into private discrimination between families and social discrimination by the public. The study analyzed the 2018 raw data from the National Multicultural Family Survey and the data of 14,899 migrants with spouses. Analysis shows that discrimination had a significant effect on the depression of migrants and that the influence of private discrimination was greater than that of social discrimination. In addition, both private and social discrimination were found to control the effect of cultural adaptation on depression, and cultural adaptation had a significant effect on depression only in groups with high levels of discrimination in both private and social discrimination.