Human Mobility and Mental Health: Cross-bordering Political Borders and Social Barriers

This study explores the psychiatrization of migrants, particularly asylum seekers and refugees as individuals institutionalised by the reception system. Adopting this perspective, the aim is to observe the intersections between human mobility, its commodification, and the application of Western psychiatry amid the outsourcing of services from public to private bodies. In particular, the study focuses on the working practices of both psychiatric and social work practitioners and how these practices are applied to migrant patients, with what premises and what outcomes. By investigating the psychiatrization of migrants, the study also sheds light on the state of the welfare system, addressing both therapeutic best practices and malpractices when dealing with individuals from the Global South and cultural diversity. The initial hypothesis posits that the psychiatrization of migrant people functions more as a dispositive of social control than as a therapeutic intervention, lacking the tools and the political intention to address cultural diversity adequately. The research addresses three core questions: (1) To what extent does the medicalization of migrants' mental health in Italy genuinely support care, and to what extent does it serve as an instrument of social control? (2) How are psychiatric services managing migrant distress, and what are the main challenges and opportunities for improvement? (3) How is the boundary between migrants' social suffering and mental disorders defined within Italian territorial services? The objective is to critically assess the use of psychiatric interventions, labelling, and pharmaceuticals with asylum seekers and refugees within a racialised welfare context. The study draws on Foucault’s theories, a Bourdieusian relational approach, and Sayad’s contributions to migration studies. Using a qualitative case study method, data were gathered through participant observation in two contexts (a Mental Health Centre and an Emergency Reception Centre) and discursive interviews with three participant groups (refugees, social workers, and mental health professionals) in the Marche Region, central Italy. Thematic Analysis was employed to analyse data. Findings show how the interactions between social actors involved in migrant management produce and reproduce structural and epistemic violence, identifying the phenomenon observed as a case of on-the-ground practice of silencing. Ultimately, the study argues that migrant suffering is more a matter of social justice than of mental health, reframing it as a fundamentally political issue rather than a medical one.