Mental Health and Precarity in Everyday Life: Lived Experiences of Internal Migrants in Urban India
1
School of Human Ecology, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India
Popul. Med. 2026;8(Supplement Supplement 1):A2604
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND-AIM:
Precarious migration and mental health are deeply interconnected, shaping and reinforcing one another. Migration under precarious conditions often generates significant psychosocial distress which further limits migrants’ capacity to cope. Despite growing global mental health literature focusing on international migrants and clinical frameworks, there remains limited attention to the mental health of internal migrants in low and middle-income countries foregrounding lived experiences and gendered realities from a psychosocial lens. This study explores the mental health and psychosocial experiences of precarious internal migrants in urban India, focusing on determinants of distress, manifestations of mental health concerns, and coping shaped by gender and migration-related precarity.
METHODS:
In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 68 internal migrants, primarily engaged in informal, low-paid work in densely populated, underserved neighbourhoods of precarious urban settlements in India. The study is part of the Global Health project on Migration, Gender-Based Violence, and Mental Health (GEMMS). Data were analysed through thematic analysis guided by socio-ecological, intersectional, and resilience frameworks.
RESULTS:
Migration trajectories were largely rural-to-urban and cyclical, driven by livelihood insecurity and aspirations for mobility. Mental distress emerged from intersecting stressors, including insecure work, poor housing, debt, and exclusionary urban spaces. These were deeply gendered: men’s distress linked to breadwinning pressures, while women’s distress was shaped by caregiving burdens, restricted mobility, and gender-based violence. Notably, participants did not use a formal mental health vocabulary, and instead used idioms like “tension” and “stress” to describe distress as a normal response to hardship. Coping was pragmatic, rooted in acceptance, informal sharing, and hope for children’s future. Formal help-seeking was limited, while traditional healing was an early source of support.
CONCLUSIONS:
Mental distress among internal migrants is relational, gendered, and structurally embedded. Effective public health responses must move beyond individualised clinical models toward community-based, culturally grounded approaches addressing structural realities.
Precarious migration and mental health are deeply interconnected, shaping and reinforcing one another. Migration under precarious conditions often generates significant psychosocial distress which further limits migrants’ capacity to cope. Despite growing global mental health literature focusing on international migrants and clinical frameworks, there remains limited attention to the mental health of internal migrants in low and middle-income countries foregrounding lived experiences and gendered realities from a psychosocial lens. This study explores the mental health and psychosocial experiences of precarious internal migrants in urban India, focusing on determinants of distress, manifestations of mental health concerns, and coping shaped by gender and migration-related precarity.
METHODS:
In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 68 internal migrants, primarily engaged in informal, low-paid work in densely populated, underserved neighbourhoods of precarious urban settlements in India. The study is part of the Global Health project on Migration, Gender-Based Violence, and Mental Health (GEMMS). Data were analysed through thematic analysis guided by socio-ecological, intersectional, and resilience frameworks.
RESULTS:
Migration trajectories were largely rural-to-urban and cyclical, driven by livelihood insecurity and aspirations for mobility. Mental distress emerged from intersecting stressors, including insecure work, poor housing, debt, and exclusionary urban spaces. These were deeply gendered: men’s distress linked to breadwinning pressures, while women’s distress was shaped by caregiving burdens, restricted mobility, and gender-based violence. Notably, participants did not use a formal mental health vocabulary, and instead used idioms like “tension” and “stress” to describe distress as a normal response to hardship. Coping was pragmatic, rooted in acceptance, informal sharing, and hope for children’s future. Formal help-seeking was limited, while traditional healing was an early source of support.
CONCLUSIONS:
Mental distress among internal migrants is relational, gendered, and structurally embedded. Effective public health responses must move beyond individualised clinical models toward community-based, culturally grounded approaches addressing structural realities.
| eISSN: | 2654-1459 |
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