Deportation may have many adverse psychological effects; it can result in trauma and stigma which is caused by hardship and being unable to maintain contact with key family members.

Many people may be returned to harsh environments where they may be subject to torture and psychological and physical harm.

There is typically psychological stress, depression and anxiety associated with deportations. The trauma also adversely affects academic performance with children often becoming withdrawn after the deportation. Children might start to engage in self-destructive behaviours, inflict self-harm, become distressed, and exhibit other mental health conditions. There may be disturbances in sleeping patterns; some children may become more aggressive. The psychological effects include mistrust, fearfulness and becoming hypervigilant. Children often experience a sense of shame and secrecy.

Individuals who feel targeted may stop participating in community life; they may move away from the support systems that kept their families psychologically healthy.

These negative psychological consequences may continue even after the children are reunited with their families. Family members often must take on jobs to make up for the lost income of the primary breadwinner.

Our expert psychologists can help by assessing families who are subject to immigration proceedings and providing evidence to the tribunal on how deportation may impact on the psychological well-being of those affected by immigration and deportation proceedings.

Immigration Psychological Assessments

Life in the UK Test – Reasonable Adjustments and Exemptions

Dyslexic people may be able to receive reasonable adjustments for The Life in the UK Test. To receive such an adjustment, one would need to provide evidence of your dyslexia. Reasonable adjustments include:

• Hundred per cent extra time;

• An online test with a reader and scribe who will select the answers as given by the examinee;

• A British Sign Language Interpreter;

• A session alone with no other candidates;

• The use of a coloured overlay on the screen; and

• Special equipment such as a larger screen and ergonomic mouse.

If you have a mental health condition, you may be exempt from completing the whole of the Life in the UK Test. Our expert psychologists would need to carry out an assessment to determine whether the candidate has a qualifying mental health condition

Find out More About the Psychology of Deportation

• Immigration Assessments

• Effects of Deportation on Families and Communities

• Psychological Effects of Deportation

• American Psychological Association Deportations

• Psychological Effects on Children of Deportation

• The Toxic Health Effects of Deportation

• Insidious Prison

• Life in the UK Test Exemption for Mental Conditions

• Life in the UK Reasonable Adjustments Dyslexic People

• Removal from the UK Toolkit

• The Psychology of Immigration

• American Psychological Association Immigration Report