Illegal Immigration, Deportation Policy, and the Optimal Timing of Return

Countries with strict immigration policies often resort to deportation measures to reduce their stocks of illegal immigrants. Many of their undocumented foreign workers, however, are not deported but rather choose to return home voluntarily. This paper studies the optimizing behavior of undocumented immigrants who continuously face the risk of deportation, modeled by a stochastic process, and must decide how long to remain in the host country. It is found that the presence of uncertainty with respect to the length of stay abroad unambiguously reduces the desired migration duration and may trigger a voluntary return when a permanent stay would otherwise be optimal. Voluntary return is motivated by both economic and psychological factors. Calibration of the model to match the evidence on undocumented Thai migrants in Japan suggests that the psychological impact of being abroad as an illegal alien may be equivalent to as large as a 68% cut in the consumption rate at the point of return

Comparing psychological distress, traumatic stress reactions, and experiences of unaccompanied refugee minors with experiences of adolescent accompanied by parents

Wetensch. publ. refereedFaculteit der Sociale Wetenschappe

The relationship between childhood abuse and severity of psychosis is mediated by loneliness: an experience sampling study

Background: This study tested the hypotheses that (i) the relationship between a history of childhood abuse and severity of psychosis is mediated by loneliness; (ii) the relationship between loneliness and psychosis is mediated by within-person fluctuations in depressive and anxious feelings.Methods: Fifty-nine individuals with non-affective psychotic disorder rated the intensity of loneliness, positive symptoms, and depressive and anxious feelings during repeated moments in daily life (Experience Sampling Method). Childhood abuse was assessed retrospectively using the 'Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse' interview. To test the mediation hypotheses, a multilevel structural equation modeling paradigm was used.Results: As predicted, the relationship between severity of childhood abuse and positive symptoms was mediated by loneliness (b = 0.08, 95% CI [0.02, 0.13], p = 0.005). In turn, the relationship between loneliness and positive symptoms was mediated by within-person fluctuations in both depressive (b = 0.04, 95% CI [0.02, 0.06], p < 0.001) and anxious (b = 0.02, 95% CI [0.01, 0.03], p = 0.002) symptomatology. Depression was a stronger mediator than anxiety (b = 0.02, 95% CI [0.00, 0.04], p = 0.027).Conclusions: Our findings highlight the role of childhood abuse and loneliness in the severity of psychosis in daily life.(c) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Dynamische persoonlijkheidsdiagnostiek.

Testothee

Comparing psychological distress, traumatic stress reactions, and experiences of unaccompanied refugee minors with experiences of adolescents accompanied by parents

Wetensch. publ. refereedFaculteit der Sociale Wetenschappe

Mentalizing impairment as a mediator between reported childhood abuse and outcome in nonaffective psychotic disorder

Reported childhood abuse has been linked to the severity of clinical symptoms and social dysfunction in non-affective psychotic disorder. Impaired mentalizing ability may be one of the mechanisms accounting for this effect. This study examined whether impaired mentalizing mediates the effect of reported childhood abuse on positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and social dysfunction. Eighty-seven patients with non-affective psychotic disorder were examined. Reported childhood abuse was measured using the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse interview. Additionally, the Social Functioning Scale and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale were used. The Hinting Task was used to measure mentalizing impairment. Reported childhood abuse was significantly related to the severity of positive and negative symptoms, not to social dysfunction. Reported childhood abuse was also related to mentalizing impairment. Mentalizing impairment was related to negative symptoms, but not to positive symptoms or social dysfunction. Mentalizing impairment accounted for 40% of the association between reported childhood abuse and negative symptoms, indicating partial mediation. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the mediating effect was only observed in those who reported fairly severe childhood abuse.status: publishe