Experience of Symbolic Violence among Immigrant Student’s and Its Psychosocial Consequences

Migration, in addition to social, cultural, and economic consequences, undoubtedly has different psychological consequences for immigrants. These consequences can have a huge impact on their mental health. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the experience of symbolic violence and its psycho-social consequences among immigrant students and to determine its final structure in research participants.

The present study is psychological qualitative research with an Interpretative phenomenological analysis approach in which fifteen migrant students consist of six girls and nine boys have been selected and studied in 2017-2018 through purposive sampling. The deep interview method was used to collect data and this process continued until the data saturation stage.

Data analysis indicated five components of symbolic violence and its psycho-social consequences in the school context. The components of symbolic violence were: violent language, social and cultural identity violence, and violence through social discrimination. The components of psychological consequences were: passive reactions, and active reactions, each of which is discussed extensively in the text.

Given that the results of this study illustrate the numerous psychological and social consequences associated with symbolic violence for immigrant students, policymaking in this area is of great importance that requires attention, recognition, and interaction between different institutions to reduce its undesirable consequences.