Previous findings indicate that refugees are at increased risk for mental health problems. In addition to stressful pre-migration experiences, post-migration factors may contribute to poor mental health outcomes. Among immigrants to the United States, downward mobility in subjective social status (SSS) was associated with depression, corroborating the potentially detrimental mental health consequences of a decline in one’s perceived social position. The present study examined whether downward mobility in SSS among male refugees from Syria to Germany is associated with depression. We found that refugees who experience stronger downward mobility in SSS exhibit more severe depressive symptoms and were more likely to fulfill provisional DSM-IV criteria for a diagnosis of Major Depression. Our findings highlight the importance to consider the ‘social pain’ of downward social mobility during the post-migration phase. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Subjective social status Downward social mobility Depression Refugees Depressive symptoms

Germany depression refugee Syrian Arab Republic mental health human epidemiology Refugees ethnology social mobility Young Adult Humans psychology male Socioeconomic Factors socioeconomics adult Syria social class Depressive Disorder, Major major depression