The effect of immigration on the psychosocial development of adolescents

Abstract

With the increasing immigrant population in Malta and the limited research on immigrant adolescents coming to the country, this study aimed to explore the effect of immigration on adolescents' psychosocial development. A total of 10 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with adolescents who migrated to Malta either on a voluntary or a non-voluntary basis (i.e. immigrated illegally). Data generated from these interviews were then analysed using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach. This approached resulted in one superordinate theme and five sub-ordinate themes emerging from the data. The themes were labelled as 'Who am I?', 'Stranger in a Strange Land', 'Talking the Talk', 'Growing up Maltese', 'Going Home Again', and 'School Days'. The findings suggest that the search for one‟s identity, identification with ethnic culture in the host country, language difficulties, experiencing and perceiving discrimination, parental and peer conflicts and/or support, and the school environment, all impact immigrant adolescents' psychosocial development. Significant difference between non-voluntary and voluntary immigrant adolescents' integration into the new culture was found, but gender differences were not identified. Implications for counsellors in working with immigrant adolescents are discussed.