Analyzing The Impacts Of Racial Discrimination On Mental Health In The Workplace Settings Among Immigrants In Australia

Literature Review

Discrimination is defined as an act of denying equal treatment to the people because of their groups, skin colour or due to their ethnic background (Triana, Jayasinghe and Pieper 2015).Racial discrimination denies people from ethnic and racial minority backgrounds from comprehensive access to basic rights like ability to take part equally and freely in social activity and equitable service provision (Ferdinand, Paradies and Kelaher 2015). According to Walker (2012), Australia has long considered as immigrant nation. Each year the total number of Australians who are born overseas increases. These immigrants are first kept in the detention centres is it’s a part of mandatory rule in Australia since 1992 (Australian Human Rights Commission 2014.). According to Newman, Proctor and Dudley (2013) the immigrants in the detention centre in Australia becomes a victim of the racial discrimination and other kind of mental torture which decreases their overall health related quality of life. According to the reports published by the ABC news Australia New Zealand and the South Sudanese immigrants report highest level of discrimination in the healthcare centres which force them to pass on to depression. The following paper aims to analyse the impacts of racial discriminationon the mental health under the workplace settings with a special focus on the immigrants’ workers and the immigrant service users in healthcare.

The main search strategy that was used for the systematic review was electronic search of articles through online databases.

The main databases which were used for the search of articles include Google Scholar and PubMed, CINHAL and MedLine.

Critical analysis of literature

In order to analyse racial discrimination in workplace, Van Laer and Janssens (2011) conducted a qualitative study over the ethnic minority professionals. They mainly included 26 ethnic minority people (Turkish or Maghrebu descent in Flanders) and conducted an interview. The analysis of the interview highlighted that the subtle discrimination occurring in the workplace is characterized by three different elements. The first element is ambiguous and mainly deals with disempowerment through apparent empowering behaviour. The second subtle discrimination is based on process of power like the normalization like legitimization and normalization. The third subtle discrimination is the workplace is associated with societal structures and discourses which permeat the workplace. In the domain of racial discrimination, Nadalet al. (2014) conducted a study in order to study the impact of racial micro-aggressions on the mental health. The analysis of the results highlighted that the subtle and unintentional form of racial discrimination and mostly prevalent among the ethnic minority group under the workplace settings. This racial mirco-aggression negatively affects the mental health of the individual leading to the generation of depressive symptoms which in turn decrease the productivity of the employee and increase in the rate of the employee turnover. Moreover, increase in the employee turnover signifies especially among the ethnic minority group leads to decrease in the workplace diversity which again hampers the organisation’s productivity. In relation to the impact of the mental health on racial discrimination in workplace, Ferdinand, Paradies and Kelaher (2015) conducted a cross-sectional survey among the Australian culturally and linguistically diverse communities. They collected data from 1,130 Australians in relation to the kind of racial discrimination they experienced under the workplace settings which lead to an increase in the psychological distress. The analysis of the results via the psychological distress scale highlighted that the age, religion, education, visibility and gender, all are significantly associated with the differences in the frequency of getting victim of the racial discrimination in workplace. However, the impacts of mental health were not associated with the type of discriminatory experience but all promoted an overall increase in psychological distress. The discrimination occurring under workplace settings promoted higher level of psychological distress in comparison to other racial discrimination occurring in shops or in other public places. The study conducted by Elias and Paradies (2016)was based on the mental health disease burden due to the exposure of the racial discrimination under the workplace settings. In order to achieve their aims, Elias and Paradies (2016) conducted a survey and performed meta-analysis of the data obtained from the racial discrimination with health-related outcomes. The analysis of the data highlighted that the racial discrimination increases the mental health pressure over the victims and this in turn increases overall cost in order to improve their health related quality of life. The meta-analysis conducted by Elias and Paradies (2016) highlighted that in Australia, the main victims of the racial discrimination are the Aboriginals and the immigrants and it has cost to the Australian economy 235,452 in disability adjusted life years lost. This is again equivalent to annual gross domestic product (GDP) and this indicates sizeable loss for the economy. The analysis of the survey also highlighted the impact of racial discrimination mainly caused negative mental health related outcomes like increase in the sense of anxiety, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).Font, Moncada and Benavides (2012) conducted a study over immigrants in Australia who are working as labour force. Font, Moncada and Benavides (2012)mainly conducted multistage cluster sampling in order to evaluate the effect of mental health arising out of workplace discrimination. The analysis of the results highlighted that immigrants’ worker experienced high level of quantitative demands and high level of emotional demands in order to hide their emotions while they are exposed to mental health complications under the workplace settings. This leads to an increase in the overall state of mental depression, poor self-esteem and lack of productive inputs in work. The analysis of the results also highlighted that native workers are more exposed to this kind of discrimination factors in comparison to the non-natives. Thus their perceived mental health loss is also high. Limpangog (2012)is of the opinion that the immigrants in Australia mainly experiences racial discrimination while seeking healthcare due to their cultural and language barrier in Australia. Moreover, Mahmoud and Hou (2012) are also highlighted that immigrants due to lack of proper knowledge mainly uses emergency department as a medium of primary care and this increases the overall burden over the healthcare workers leading to increases in the tendency of racially discriminating the health service users, immigrants in Australia. The aftermath of this racial discrimination increases the overall mental health burden leading to depression and poor self-esteem. The review of the immigrants’ utilization of the emergency departments in Australia highlighted that language barrier leads to improper utilization of hospital units and thus they become victim of the unfair treatments of the hospital staffs (Mahmoud and Hou2012).

Research Proposal

The analysis of the research articles highlighted that minority groups become victims of the racial discrimination in the workplace. This racial discrimination is manifested in the form of micro-aggression which negatively affects the overall mental health and well-being of the victims and thereby increasing the sense of depression and decreasing the organisational productivity. The racial discrimination varies with the skin colour, gender and with the cultural background of the people. People who are immigrants and belong to CLAD group are more vulnerable in getting victims of racial discrimination. Becoming victims of racial discrimination leads to psychological distress, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder along with high emotional demands. The Australian immigrants also become victims of racial discrimination mainly in the detention centre and under the healthcare settings.

The main gaps in the literature is, there are direct evidence of the type of racial discrimination experienced by the immigrants in Australia under the healthcare settings of a multi-ethnic hospital and how this kind of racial discrimination force them to pass on to depression which affects their overall health and well-being further. The articles which are published online mainly highlights the mental health consequences as a result of racial discrimination under workplace settings but there are direct study about immigrants mental health in hospital settings under the topic of racial discrimination.

The future research proposal will be directed towards the research question, How does racial discrimination within immigrants in multi-Ethnic hospital employees lead to depression on immigrants?.

The research design will mainly be qualitative based in open-ended interview conducted over the immigrants in Australia who have visited multi-ethnic hospital. The questioner will be drafted in such a way that it will help to capture their mental health consequences and the state of depression upon getting victims of racial discrimination and how they treated bythe multi-ethnic hospital employee.  

Conclusion

Thus from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the racial discrimination under the workplace settings affect the mental health status of an individual leading to increase in the psychological imbalance along with an increase in the sense of depression. The Australian immigrants also becomes victims of the negative mental health during their stay in the detention centre, the future research proposal will mainly be directed towards analysis of the mental health and the level of depression of the immigrants in Australia who have become victims of the racial discrimination under hospital settings. 

References

ABC News. 2016. New Zealand, South Sudanese migrants to Australia ‘report highest levels of discrimination. Access date: 22^nd September 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-24/new-zealanders-report-higher-levels-of-discrimination/7778520

Australian Human Rights Commission.2014.Immigration detention and human rights. Access date: 22^nd September 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/asylum-seekers-and-refugees/projects/immigration-detention-and-human-rights

Elias, A. and Paradies, Y., 2016. Estimating the mental health costs of racial discrimination. BMC public health, 16(1), p.1205.

Ferdinand, A.S., Paradies, Y. and Kelaher, M., 2015. Mental health impacts of racial discrimination in Australian culturally and linguistically diverse communities: a cross-sectional survey. BMC public health, 15(1), p.401.

Font, A., Moncada, S. and Benavides, F.G., 2012. The relationship between immigration and mental health: what is the role of workplace psychosocial factors. International archives of occupational and environmental health, 85(7), pp.801-806.

Limpangog, C.P., 2012. Racialised and Gendered Workplace Discrimination: The Case of Skilled Filipina Immigrants in Melbourne, Australia.”. Journal of Workplace Rights, 17(2), pp.191-218.

Mahmoud, I. and Hou, X.Y., 2012. Immigrants and the utilization of hospital emergency departments. World journal of emergency medicine, 3(4), p.245.

Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J. and Altman, D.G., 2009. Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. Annals of internal medicine, 151(4), pp.264-269.

Nadal, K.L., Griffin, K.E., Wong, Y., Hamit, S. and Rasmus, M., 2014. The impact of racial microaggressions on mental health: Counseling implications for clients of color. Journal of Counseling & Development, 92(1), pp.57-66.

Newman, L., Proctor, N. and Dudley, M., 2013.Seeking asylum in Australia: immigration detention, human rights and mental health care. Australasian Psychiatry, 21(4), pp.315-320.

Triana, M.D.C., Jayasinghe, M. and Pieper, J.R., 2015. Perceived workplace racial discrimination and its correlates: A meta?analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(4), pp.491-513.

Van Laer, K. and Janssens, M., 2011.Ethnic minority professionals’ experiences with subtle discrimination in the workplace. Human Relations, 64(9), pp.1203-1227.

Walker, D., 2012. Anxious nation: Australia and the rise of Asia 1850-1939. Anxious Nation: Australia and the rise of Asia 1850-1939, p.xv.