Resources for migrants can be scarce and hard to navigate, which is why the Normal-based nonprofit The Immigration Project has been connecting them with legal and social services for more than 25 years.
More recently, the nonprofit has widened its scope to tackle mental health.
The Immigration Project started a support group in July centered on healing migratory grief for Spanish-speakers. It currently caters to about eight clients who live in and around Central Illinois.
Kathia Rodriguez, a psychologist from Mexico and one of the co-facilitators of the group, described what she and co-facilitator Camila Graunke do as supporting the process of people’s transitions.
“We’re able to bring a very empathetic and noble way of helping the client through this very cold process of leaving a place and relocating elsewhere,” Rodriguez told WGLT in Spanish and Graunke translated to English.
Immigration is well understood as a traumatic experience, and research shows it’s common for people who migrate to have mental health issues. The framework Graunke and Rodriguez use for the support group is centered largely on Ulysses Syndrome, which Spanish doctor Joseba Achotegui developed around two decades ago. Ulysses Syndrome — as defined by a U.K.-based institute of the same name — is “extreme migratory grief, not a mental disorder, that appears in immigrants who live in very adverse situations, (such as) loneliness, exclusion, fear and helplessness.”
Using Ulysses Syndrome and other scholars’ work surrounding migratory grief, Graunke said she and Rodriguez built a roadmap for the group. She said areas of focus for conversation include pre-migration, departure, transition and resettlement. These are also considered stages of migratory grief.
In the group, Graunke said she may ask questions like “What was it like for you to transition to the states? (and) what has it been like to resettle here?... How are you processing that grief? How are you processing or being reminded of the grief over and over again?”
She pointed out that people in the group come from diverse backgrounds. Some might be new arrivals, others may have been here for years.
While there’s an influx of migrants coming to Illinois — in particular, Chicago — Graunke said the impetus for starting the group came from years of need. She pointed out that migrants at any stage of their life could benefit from this type of support group. Grief is reoccurring, Graunke added.
“You could have gotten here three years ago, and after those three years, you lose your job,” she said. “When you lose your job, you consider, did I make the right decision? You start that process all over again.”
Graunke and Rodriguez are also immigrants themselves. They said they both pull from their personal experiences to help others in the group. The duo said their professional backgrounds complement each other well. As a social worker, Graunke said she approaches things from a systemic viewpoint, whereas Rodriguez is a psychologist and said she focuses more on the individuals, and the science behind their emotions. Together, Graunke said they “collaborate for the same goal of helping the clients grief.”
Right now, the group is closed. Graunke said the idea is meant to have consistent attendance from the same individuals. That way, Graunke added “whoever starts with us gets to kind of process through the stages of grief with the group” until they get to a point where meetings may no longer be necessary.
Once the group ends, Graunke said the goal would be to start another group.
“We're trying to work on perfecting a curriculum that we can continue… not just for this one individual group, but for both us and maybe nationally,” she said. “Maybe we are able to create something that can help people over and over again through this process of migration that is not unknown to other countries and unknown to other individuals.”
Graunke said she knows people already who are waiting for their turn.
