ORIGINAL PAPER Vulnerability to Stress in Migratory Contexts: A Study with Eastern European Immigrants Residing in Portugal Ana Paula Teixeira de Almeida Vieira Monteiro • Adriano Vaz Serra Published online: 2 February 2011 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 Abstract The assessment of individual vulnerability to stress emerges as a predictive factor of a higher risk of developing stress-related disorders. In the last decade, the geography of immigration in Portugal experienced intense transformations in terms of recruitment and patterns of geographic settlement, with an increasing and exponential inflow of new and diversified migratory groups. The immigrant populations coming from Eastern European countries are a recent migratory flow, with linguistic, cul- tural and socio-demographic specificities which are very different from the general Portuguese population. This makes them a paradigmatic group in potential transcultural studies on mental health issues. The primary aim of the study was to describe the characteristics of vulnerability to stress and determine their impact on the mental health status of Russian-speaking immigrants residing in Portugal. The relationship between vulnerability to stress, sociode- mographic variables, mental health status and social sup- port were analyzed, using the SSQ6, GHQ28, 23QVS and a socio-demographic questionnaire. A comparative analysis was carried out, using a control group of 110 Portuguese subjects without previous migratory experiences, matched by sex, age group and academic qualifications. The eastern European immigrants reported high levels of vulnerability to stress assessed by the cut-off point of the 23QVS. Immigrants also reported higher percentage of vulnerabil- ity to stress and lower social support levels of social support versus the control group. Several factors inherent to the dynamics of the migratory process were related to the presence of vulnerability to stress. The findings suggest that vulnerability to stress is positively correlated with worse mental health outcomes and negatively correlated with the social support perceived as available—number of supporters and satisfaction with social support. Keywords Vulnerability to stress Á Mental health Á Eastern European immigrants in Portugal Introduction There are nearly 200 million international migrants, a population equivalent to the 5th most populous country in the world, Brazil. It is more than twice the number regis- tered in 1980, just 25 years ago. International migrations affect countries at all stages of economic development and of all ideological and cultural currents. Another decisive factor to understand the dynamics of contemporary migrations is that 90% of world’s migrants are concen- trated only in 55 countries [1]. Portugal is not an exception to this global trend. In the last decade, the geography of immigration in Portugal experienced intense transformations in terms of recruit- ment and patterns of geographic settlement, with an increasing and exponential inflow of new and diversified migratory groups. The Portuguese mental health care sys- tem is still struggling to address some of the specific challenges presented by recent legal and illegal immigra- tion from Brazil and central and Eastern Europe, as well as the more traditional immigration from Africa [2]. The immigrant populations coming from Eastern European A. P. T. de Almeida Vieira Monteiro (&) Nursing School of Coimbra, Rua 5 de Outubro, Apartado 55, 3001-901 Coimbra, Portugal e-mail: anapaula@esenfc.pt A. V. Serra Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal e-mail: adrianovs@netvisao.pt 123 J Immigrant Minority Health (2011) 13:690–696 DOI 10.1007/s10903-011-9451-z