Career Stressors, Extra-Organisational Stressors, Coping and Mental Well-being Among Migrant Workers in South Africa, Uganda and Kenya

Abstract It is inevitable that human migration involves major life changes, whereby those migrating have to adapt to new environments, new administrations, different politics, adjust to new cultural needs and become ethnic minorities in a new region and part of a new system. Typically, migrant workers because of their desperate need to find employment to support themselves financially are employed in jobs that are dangerous, dirty and difficult. This study seeks to identify the career and extra-organisational stressors and how they influence the coping strategies and the mental wellbeing of migrant workers. In this quantitative cross-sectional study, questionnaireswere distributed as part of a survey and data were conveniently collected from a sampleof migrants in three African countries, namely South Africa, Uganda and Kenya. Datawere analysed descriptively using IBM SPSS v28. Exploratory Factor Analysis wasfurther used to assess the scales developed by the authors to avoid any violation of assumptions and to identify coherent subsets of latent factors. The scales of the authors were used together with the WHO-5 Measurement Index and the prescribed scoringsystem used for assessment of subjective wellbeing. Further, R analytics using mahalonobis distance was used to test the hypothesised relationships between thevarious constructs of the study. The study found that career stressors had a positivesignificant relationship with coping, wellbeing, and common mental disorders. Extra-organisational stressors had a positive significant relationship with coping, wellbeingand common mental disorders. These findings have implication for the development ofculturally sensitive tools that will assist clinicians to improve diagnostic and psycho-therapeutical processes.