Mental health consequences of immigration detention include higher rates of depression, anxiety, PTSD, conduct issues, hyperactivity, compared to the general population. These harmful impacts exist regardless of past traumatic experiences (e.g., near-death experiences, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, etc.), age, or nationality, or even time elapsed. Immigration detention may take place at country or state borders, in certain international jurisdiction zones, on offshore islands, boats, camps, or could even be in the form of house arrest. The use of immigration detention around the world has increased recently, leading to greater concerns about the health and wellbeing of detained migrants. A 2018 scoping review from BMC Psychiatry gathered information showing that immigration detention consistently results in negative impacts on detainees.
Overview
The number of refugees globally has increased substantially since 2014. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that at the end of 2019, the number of forcibly displaced persons is at 79.5 million, including internally displaced people (IDP; 45.7 million), refugees (26 million), asylum seekers (4.2 million), and Venezuelans displaced abroad (3.6 million), compared to the 51 million of forcibly displaced persons in 2013, which was already the largest number since World War II.
Many countries detain undocumented immigrants, including asylum seekers and non-citizens. In 2017 and 2018, there were 160,504 detained immigrants in the European Union and the United Kingdom. In 2017 the number went rose to 323,591 in the United States in 2017.
Refugees and asylum seekers are already more vulnerable to mental health consequences, given the physical and mental burden of fleeing one's own country. Detention exacerbates immigrants’ psychological condition, especially depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Numerous studies have examined and pointed out acute and long-term psychological distress among detained immigrants, especially children, making them particularly vulnerable.
Immigration detainees commonly report anxiety, depression, and PTSD during and after detention. Pre-detention stressors include exposure to torture, human trafficking, and other kinds of human rights violations, already putting immigrants at risk for mental health issues. During detention, immigrants have to cope with the loss of liberty, the risk of being forced to return to their country of origin, social isolation, and possible abuse from staff, which may resemble their country of origin, triggering their traumatic experiences.
A meta-analysis examined 17 studies on 1168 participants of immigration detainees, including host countries such as the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Israel, Japan, Switzerland, and Sweden, and countries of origin ranging from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Mexico, Cuba, to other countries in Central America. The wide range of countries suggests a universality in the negative mental health impact of immigration detention. Findings suggest that detention adds additional stressors to immigrants and is associated with greater symptom severity. Additionally, detained refugees suffer from greater symptom severity than non-detained refugees. The duration of detention is linked, the severity of adverse mental health outcomes . It is stated that “the experience of detention may act as a new stressor, which adds to the cumulative effect of exposure to trauma, leading to an increased likelihood of developing mental health difficulties such as PTSD” (p. 2).
Historical context
The institutionalized use of detention centers began during the 1980s. Before this point, detention was used only in extenuating circumstances, when the state deemed it absolutely necessary. In this context, detainees were held in more improvised locations such as prisons, warehouses, or even hotel rooms. Within the United States, immigration control has been a prominent aspect of national policy since the days of the Chinese Exclusion Act, and even Ellis Island housed a detention center, showing that detention has almost always been part of the US immigration process. In fact, Ellis Island was known as "The Island of Tears" to immigrants. Under Reagan in the 1980s, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) began to earnestly detain migrants from the Caribbean, and built numerous detention centers within the US and in Puerto Rico. A major turning point followed, with the passage of the Immigration Control and Reform Act (IRCA) in 1986. The passage of this legislation ensured that immigration control would stay a high priority in policy, and increased the funding for enforcement and detention activities.