Silvia Biet – Psychologist specialized in migration
October 2025
Grief, Self-Perception, and the Host Country
When migration is approached from psychology, the topic often analyzed is grief over losses — what we leave behind and miss as migrants in the host country. While there is enthusiasm and excitement for a new project, sadness also appears, discomforting and overwhelming emotions during the integration period.
It is equally important to analyze what happens in the relationship one has with oneself during that time — one’s self-image, sense of security, and self-esteem.
Contact with a new culture will challenge the migrant’s behavior and worldview, presenting issues that lead to changes in their responses. In the attempt to integrate, they may either change or cling strongly to familiar patterns as a defensive mechanism.
The way others see the migrant, and the way the migrant perceives themselves within this new society, will differ from what they experienced in their home country. This change in self-perception will bring about transformations in self-image and self-esteem, significantly affecting the integration process.
The Construction of Identity and Migration
The construction of identity is a process that begins at birth and develops within a specific family and community group.
Primary socialization takes place within the relationship a child establishes with their parents or caregivers. This relationship fosters the incorporation of values and worldviews through identification processes.
The self and self-image are shaped through dynamic interaction with the immediate social environment. Affection facilitates learning and the gradual incorporation of the group’s cultural heritage.
Secondary socialization broadens and diversifies relationships as the child, and later the adolescent, gains access to other circles of belonging such as school, clubs, and other social spaces. Their identity changes as they mature and experience biological, psychological, and relational transformations. At the same time, they begin to distance themselves from their family nucleus in order to individualize.
This construction is a complex and never linear process. There may be periods of progress and regression as natural stages. An ambivalent relationship develops between belonging to a group through identification and asserting individual uniqueness.
Now, consider that at some point in this long process, the person migrates and finds themselves in a cultural environment different from the one in which they grew up. Depending on the age at which migration occurs, the impact on personality development will vary. Cultural shock will have different effects and can often cause significant internal imbalance.
They will also experience intense moments regarding how they are seen by people in the new community — moments that will mark, inevitably, difference and non-belonging. Being seen as a migrant is difficult to process.
At the same time, an internal imbalance arises alongside external changes, disturbing self-perception. The parameters that once provided security and self-esteem may change drastically within the dynamics of new relationships in the host culture.
A small child will experience this social and cultural change through their parents, and once they begin school, they will navigate between two distinct systems: home and the institution. Children have great adaptability, and although they generally adjust quickly to these differences, we should not underestimate the psychological effort this requires.
It is worth noting how each environment (home, school) constitutes a distinct system, with its own language and relational dynamics. Each system initially remains isolated from the other, and over time, they begin to intertwine — reflecting the child’s internal process.
The figures of identification that the growing child encounters complement parental figures. In a multicultural environment, these figures may differ greatly from the parents. The cultural distance between them can become destabilizing for families, as other members may not recognize themselves in the attitudes and behaviors of the child.
It is important to clarify that while this identity construction is taking place for the child, the parents are also each experiencing their own process of acculturation.
When migration occurs in adulthood — when the person already has a life path, personal history, personality, and self-image — migration has different psychological, intellectual, and relational effects. The identity constructed through life experiences and within a sociocultural and geographical context will face a new reality.
Cultural shock will test their ability to cope with new situations, creating the need to learn from these experiences in order to maintain emotional balance and meet material life needs.
This impact generates stress and anxiety, and sometimes it may lead to a crisis when the person feels unable to face this psychological work within a reality that has become very hostile.
The Intercultural Mirror
Kraven and Patron developed the concept of the “intercultural mirror” to describe the complex dynamic that results from how the migrant is perceived by the culturally different “other” — and how that gaze can reflect back an image very different from the one the migrant has of themselves.
If the host society views and welcomes the migrant “with kind eyes,” recognizing positive and constructive aspects, this reflected image will favor integration.
In contrast, when the migrant is rejected, seen as a criminal or a threat to the host society through stereotypes and discrimination, integration becomes much more difficult. The person exhausts themselves trying to find and present arguments to overturn the established narrative.
However, in many migration experiences, the intercultural mirror can enable a positive identity change. The migrant may free themselves from certain rigidities and constraints maintained in their country of origin. Crossing an ethnic or cultural boundary can allow for the expression of identity traits that are more fulfilling in their current life.
Multifactorial Context
It is impossible to predict what effects and changes the migration experience will produce in each migrant. Many factors are involved in this complex process — internal factors of the individual and external factors specific to the host society at a particular historical moment.
In this text, I have outlined the various dynamics at play that we must consider when communicating in intercultural contexts — not only in clinical listening during psychological or medical consultations but also in educational and other social settings.
Finally, in the process of acculturation, two or more cultural communities come into contact. Within the framework of social cohesion and peace, exchanges should aim to preserve and respect the well-being of all, as much as possible, for the general population.
This challenge is not simple, considering the power relations between groups. The economic and material interests of some often prevail over collective well-being, and racist discourse falsely sustains and justifies injustice.