Educational programmes for reducing depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms among migrant workers: a scoping review and evidence synthesis.

backgroundMigrant workers face additional stress from language and cultural barriers in host countries. Educational programs focus on supporting acculturation of migrant workers are often believed to help stress-relief by providing knowledge for their language learning, cultural understanding, and inclusive practises, but no conclusion has been made on the effectiveness. This review aims to address this gap by examining the impact of acculturation programmes in managing psychological distress among migrant workers, with anxiety and depression as primary outcomes, and stress as secondary outcome.

methodsWe searched six bibliographic databases (Embase, Medline, CINAHL Complete, PsycInfo, SocINDEX, and Cochrane Library) from inception to 12 September 2024 using keywords "migrant workers AND education AND (stress OR anxiety OR depress)" and grey literatures.

resultsEleven articles were critically appraised as identified from 4795 searched titles. Included studies were primarily conducted in the United States, involved predominately blue-collar workers/ health care workers, and females. Seven types of interventions were identified. Specifically, positive impacts on stress levels were observed following lay health educators' intervention (MD: -4.03, p < 0.01 in Latina migrants), peer groups, and spiritual retreat courses demonstrated significant evidence of reducing stress. Peer groups resulted in a significant improvement in perceived stress levels among resettled working refugees (MD: -5.00, p < 0.0001). Similarly, spiritual retreat courses significantly improved perceived stress levels in Nigerian women workers, with a mean difference of -4.05 (p < 0.01). However, improvement in anxiety after life skills trainings was insignificant. Overall, such programs can effectively address stress and depression, ultimately improving the overall well-being of migrant workers in host countries.

conclusionsAcculturation programmes covering life skills and work skills are common approaches in supporting migrant workers' mental health. Overall, the findings suggest that migrant-local support groups, lay health educators' interventions, peer groups, and spiritual retreat courses, can effectively address stress and depression among migrant workers. However, heterogeneity exists between studies. Acculturation programmes constitute feasible solutions to address the global mental health crisis. Future research should be done to investigate acculturative educational programmes impact in a larger population. REGISTRATION: This review was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42021292998).