ORIGINAL ARTICLE Stress and Coping in the Lives of Recent Immigrants and Refugees: Considerations for Counseling Oksana Yakushko & Megan Watson & Sarah Thompson Published online: 25 July 2008 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008 Abstract Recent immigrants and refugees experience great amounts of stress. Literature on immigration and stress has focused primarily on the stressors directly related to immigrants’ adjustment to a new culture (i.e., acculturation stress). This manuscript discusses stress and coping in the lives of recent immigrants and refugees within a framework of stress theories proposed in psychological literature. In addition, an overview of stressors encountered by recent immigrants is provided. Implications for clinical work, research, and advocacy are discussed. Keywords Immigration . Stress . Coping Introduction Over 100 million immigrants and 13 million refugees have moved across borders worldwide within the last several decades (Potocky-Tripodi 2002). Immigration is undoubtedly among the strongest forces that have shaped recent history, and current global changes account for unprecedented movements of individuals across the world in search of better opportunities and conditions (Marsella and Ring 2003). The visibility of recent immigrants in counseling literature is growing. However, there are evident gaps in knowledge about recent immigrants and refugees (RIR), their adjustment to new environments, and their unique needs (Hovey 2000; Pernice 1994; Yoshihama and Horrucks 2002). One of these unexplored areas is the distinct ways that RIR experience stress and cope with the challenges of adjustment. Building on the existing literature, this manuscript first provides an overview of major theories of stress. Second, there is an examination of distinct stressors RIR face during their pre- and post-migration experiences. Lastly, suggestions regarding clinical practice with this population are made. Int J Adv Counselling (2008) 30:167–178 DOI 10.1007/s10447-008-9054-0 O. Yakushko (*) : M. Watson : S. Thompson 235 TCH, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0345, USA e-mail: Oyakushko2@unl.edu