Adverse migration experiences, border community stress, and the mental health of asylum-seeking women in transit at the Mexico-U.S. border

We evaluated the association between adverse migration experiences, border community stress, and mental health symptoms in a community-recruited sample of asylum-seeking women. As part of a mixed-methods, community-academic partnership, we analyzed cross-sectional questionnaires conducted with asylum-seeking women at the Tijuana-San Diego border (N = 151) between Feb–July 2024. Symptoms of anxiety (56.6 %), moderate-to-severe depression (45.9 %), and post-traumatic stress (52 %) were common, with 70.1 % experiencing symptoms of at least one of these. Most (82.1 %) faced adverse experiences during migration journey and high levels of current border community stress. When we examined the relationship between each type of adverse migration experience and mental health symptoms, lack of safe shelter during migration was marginally associated with experiencing current generalized anxiety symptoms, whereas other types of adverse experiences had positive, but null, associations. Higher border community stress was associated with experiencing generalized anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms. Asylum-seeking women at the Mexico-U.S. border face significant mental health risks during migration and while waiting to enter the U.S. Structural and multilevel interventions to mitigate these are needed, including changes to asylum deterrence policies and scale-up of humanitarian services. • Asylum-seeking women face threats to mental health across the migration process. • Adverse experiences during migration and border stress linked to mental health symptoms. • Changes to migration policies and increased humanitarian services are needed.