Table 2.
Study characteristics
| Study | Study design | population | Sample size | Countries of origin | Host countries | Outcome measures | Results (stress factors) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alderete et al. (2001) | Cross-sectional study | Mexican migrant farmworkers | 1001 | Mexico | USA | The risk of lifetime mood or anxiety disorders | Extension of their contact with the host society or becoming permanent settlers in the United States |
| Alkhadher and Al-Naser (2007) | Cross-sectional study | Teachers working in various American-system schools | 77 | USA | Kuwait | Occupational stress, occupational role, personal strain and personal resources | Locally hired teachers reported higher work role insufficiency than expatriate teachers |
| Al-Maskari et al. (2011) | Cross-sectional study | Immigrant workers [construction workers (40.8%), garage mechanics (2.0%), carpenters (21.7%) and others (35.5%)] | 239 | Indian (43.7%), Bangladeshi (9.2%), Pakistani (41.8%), non-national Arabs (2.8%) and others (2.5%) | UAE | The Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-42) | Depression was associated with physical illness, working in the construction industry, earning less than 1000 UAE Dirham/month and working > 8 h/day. Workers with suicidal ideation were more likely to work < 8 h/day, earn less than 1000 Dirham/month and report an illness |
| Ayalon (2010) | Cross-sectional study | Filipino home care workers | 178 | Philippines | Israel | Intention to leave their work, depression and PTSD symptoms | Negative work/home experience was associated with depression and PTSD symptoms. Caring for elders with dementia was a risk factor of intention to leave their job |
| Bhanugopan and Fish (2006) | Cross-sectional study | Expatriate managers (21% respondents were working in manufacturing companies) | 189 | Australian (25.0%), New Zealander (15.0%), American (12.0%), British (5.0%), Asian (16.0%), Indian (7.0%), South Pacific Islander (6.0%) | Papua New Guinea | Job burnout | Role conflict, role ambiguity and role overload were related to job burnout. Role conflict was the main reason |
| Brown and James (2000) | Cross-sectional study | Filipino immigrant nurses or nurse’s aides | 31 | Philippines | USA | Blood pressure and catecholamine | The length of stay in the US was positively associated with the elevation of norepinephrine levels |
| Burkholder et al. (2010) | Cross-sectional study | Business travellers | 12,942 | USA | Multinational | International travellers’ objective and subjective health status | International travellers significantly associated with low BMI, low blood pressure, high consumption of alcohol, less sleeping hours, less confidence in keeping up with the pace of work and weakness of social ties with friends |
| Chen et al. (2010) | Cross-sectional study | Expatriates in a multinational company in the energy industry | 556 | 31 countries | USA | Cross-cultural motivation, work adjustment and performance | Cross-cultural motivation was positively associated with work adjustment and job performance |
| Connor and Miller (2014) | Qualitative study | Filipino immigrant nurses | 20 | The Philippines | USA | The participant’s knowledge and perceptions of stress | Participants faced communication problems, discrimination, alienation and resettlement demands because of unexpected social and living environments |
| de Castro et al. (2010) | Cross-sectional study | Latino day labourers | 30 | Mexico (76.7%), Guatemala (10.0%), El Salvador (6.7%), Honduras (3.3%), Peru (3.3%) | USA | Work related, economic and social stressors using biological markers | There were no significant differences between objective health data and psychological burden score because of small sample size |
| Donlan and Lee (2010) | Cross-sectional study | Mexican migrant farmworkers | 123 | Mexico | USA | Depression scale | Culture-bound syndromes, poor or fair self-rated physical health, perceived language conflict and perceived discrimination were stress factors |
| Ea et al. (2008) | Cross-sectional study | Filipino nurses | 96 | Philippines | USA | Acculturation and job satisfaction | Age was negatively associated with job satisfaction |
| Espino et al. (2002) | Cross-sectional and qualitative study | Business travellers and their spouses of an American company | 102 | USA | Developing countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe | Stress of business travellers and their families | About 75% of the staff reported they felt high stress. The extent of stress was positively associated with the impact of their health and family |
| Fujishiro et al. (2010) | Cross-sectional study | Workers living in the USA who were born in foreign countries | 915 | Not mentioned | USA | Job control and demands, perceived job stress and self-rated health | Although job control was negatively associated with reporting fair/poor health among foreign-born English and Spanish users in the USA, it had no associations with job stress |
| Gabel et al. (2005) | Cross-sectional and qualitative study | Internationally assigned managers and their supervisors | 39 for quantitative, 20 for qualitative study | Spain | Several Latin American countries | Emotional intelligence, job performance, satisfaction, cultural differences, perceived organisational support, cross-cultural training and spouse adjustment | Adjustment at the work place was associated with the intrapersonal emotional component |
| Griffin and Soskolne (2003) | Cross-sectional study | Thai migrant agricultural workers | 221 | Thailand | Israel | Psychological distress (depression and anxiety) | Migration stressors, the migrants’ traditional health beliefs, quality of current social relationships, drinking behaviour, younger age and occupational exposure were significantly associated with psychological distress |
| Grzywacz et al. (2010) | Cross-sectional study | Latino farmworkers | 230 | Mexico (94.8%) | USA | CES-D score for depression | Marital status, discrimination, the pace of work, crowded living conditions and concerns about documentation were the risk of depressive symptoms |
| Hayne et al. (2009) | Cross-sectional study | Nurses | 15 | Philippines | USA | Perception of their work environment, work satisfaction and indicators of job stress | Nurses were largely satisfied with their work. They reported that workload was appropriate, but 20% of nurses reported distress due to confusion about their role |
| Hiott et al. (2008) | Cross-sectional study | Latino migrant farmworkers | 125 | Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras | USA | The anxiety scale of the Personality Assessment Inventory, CES-D and alcohol dependence using the CAGE | Social isolation and working conditions were the risk factors of anxiety and depressive symptoms |
| Hoppe et al. (2009) | Case–control study | Latino warehouse workers | 118 | Latin America | USA | Job stress and psychological well-being | Fairness in management and support from supervisor were associated with their well-being |
| Hovey and Magana (2002) | Cross-sectional study | Mexican migrant farmworkers | 65 | Mexico | USA | The relationship between acculturative stress and anxiety | Elevated acculturative stress, low self-esteem, ineffective social support, lack of control and choice in living a migrant farmworker lifestyle, low religiosity, and high education were significantly related to high anxiety |
| Huang and Yang (2011) | Cross-sectional study | Foreign nurse aides who worked in long-term care facilities | 71 | Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam | Taiwan | Work adjustment and work stressor | Patient care tasks were related to the foreign nurse aides’ personal relationships at work and their attitude to work. Work stressors were associated with work adjustment |
| Jassawalla et al. (2004) | Qualitative study | Managers working in the USA who experienced expatriate | 8 | Seven managers were from the USA, one manager was from the UK | Managers from the USA went to Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland, the UK and Venezuela. A manager from the UK went to the USA | Key challenges and cultural differences of the expatriates. Helpful personal strengths. Training for expatriate. Desirable preparation | The difficulty in the cross-cultural interpersonal conflict was a risk factor of stress |
| Karkar et al. (2015) | Cross-sectional study | Haemodialysis nurses | 93 | Philippines, India, Indonesia and Pakistan | Saudi Arabia | The amount of burnout and the impact of stress | Job insecurity was a risk factor of stress |
| Kawai and Mohr (2015) | Cross-sectional study | Japanese expatriate managers | 125 | Japan | Germany | Job satisfaction, task performance and work adjustment | Role ambiguity was negatively associated with job satisfaction and work adjustment |
| Lee et al. (2012) | Cross-sectional study | Korean–Chinese migrant workers (service workers 59.4%, construction workers 20.0%, and factory workers 15.9%) | 170 | China | Korea | job demands, insufficient job control, interpersonal conflict measures from the Korean Occupational Stress Scale and the CES-D | Acculturative stress, job demands, insufficient job control and interpersonal conflict were associated with depression |
| Lee et al. (2014) | RCT | Korean–Chinese female migrant workers | 59 | China | Korea | Musculoskeletal fitness, musculoskeletal symptoms, and acculturative stress | Intervention was stretching exercise + mobile phone text messaging and telephone counselling to increase self-efficacy and provide social support. Control was Stretching exercise only. Flexibility increased in both groups, but acculturative stress decreased only in the control group |
| Luxon and Peelo (2009) | Qualitative | International faculty in the UK higher education institutes | 32 | Sudan, China, Finland, etc. Not all countries were mentioned | UK | Development and assessment of English course for non-UK teachers | Teaching cultural surroundings, lack of information of daily life were the risk factors of stress |
| Negi (2012) | Cross-sectional and qualitative study | Latino day labourers | 150 | Immigrants born in Mexico (68%), Central America (31%) and the USA (< 1%) | USA | The association between discrimination, social isolation and factors of mitigating stress related to psychological distress | Discrimination and social isolation predicted psychological distress. Acculturation, religiosity, age and remittance were not significantly associated with psychological distress |
| Nilvarangkul et al. (2010) | Qualitative study | Laotian migrant workers in several different employment locations | 70 | Laos | Thailand | perception of stress | Living with poverty, non-standard wages and having limited choices, loneliness, abuse by employers and local people, distrusting their spouses, competition in the workplace and job uncertainty were risk factors of stress |
| Okamoto and Teo (2011) | Qualitative study | White-collar workers working for Japanese companies | 37 | Japan | Australia | Role stress (comprising role ambiguity and role conflict) | Insufficient competence in English, information shortage, differences in communication style and cross-cultural understanding were risk factors of stress |
| Pasca and Wagner (2012) | Case–control study | Professionals working in the fields of education, health care, and/or social work | 84 | Caucasian 54.8%, Hispanic 9.5%, Hispanic 9.5%, Other 26.2% | Canada | Satisfaction, mental health symptoms, relationship satisfaction, job satisfaction and occupational stress | Non-Canadian-born workers reported experiencing a higher level of somatic distress and paranoid ideation than Canadian-born |
| Rosenbusch et al. (2015) | Cross-sectional and qualitative study | The expatriates of overseas assignment in the last 3 years | 111 | 25 nationalities (USA 14%) | 27 countries (Switzerland 25% and USA 24%) | Cross-cultural adjustment | Spiritual, occupational and support stressors were associated with expatriate adjustment |
| Shaffer et al. (2013) | Cross-sectional study | Expatriates from nine nationalities living and working in Hong Kong | 78 | Nine nationalities | China (Hong Kong) | Expatriate pay satisfaction | Equity perceptions and appropriate assignment were positively associated with expatriate pay satisfaction |
| Silbiger and Pines (2014) | Cross-sectional study | Israeli expatriates | 233 | Israel | 32 countries (USA 38% and UK 6.5%) | Adjustment, perceived stress level, burnout, work importance and withdrawal cognitions | Work importance was negatively correlated with burnout and positively correlated with stress |
| Snipes et al. (2007) | Qualitative study | Mexican immigrant farmworkers | 69 | Mexico | USA | The concept of stress | Language, traditional household duties for women, lack of having a consistent job, low income, injustice, family illness and the laws in the USA were risk factors for stress |
| Stahl and Caligiuri (2005) | Cross-sectional and qualitative study | The expatriates of German companies | 116 | Germany | Japan and USA | Work adjustment, interaction adjustment and intention to remain on the international assignment | The work adjustment was negatively associated with the combination of high position level and problem-focussed coping strategies |
| Stroppa and Spies (2011) | Cross-sectional study | White-collar employees on foreign assignment in small and medium-sized companies | 127 | Germany | China, USA, UAE, UK, Kazakhstan, Japan, India, Slovakia and others | Job stress and job satisfaction | Job stress was negatively associated with personal initiative and support from supervisors, but not associated with support from co-workers |
| Tsai and Salazar (2007) | Qualitative study | Chinese immigrants working for restaurants | 18 | China, Hong Kong and Taiwan | USA | physical, biological, enviro-mechanical, chemical, and psychosocial hazards | Workload, the hierarchical worker structure and communicating with customers in English were risk factors of stress |
| Tsutsumi et al. (2005) | Cross-sectional study | Workers at an electrical equipment manufacturing company | 2233 | Japan | USA, Brazil, France, Germany, Korea, UK, China, Iraq, Singapore and Ukraine | SDS, Sheehan’s Patient Rated Anxiety Scale and The Job Content Questionnaire | There were no significant differences in the SDS and Sheehan score between experienced and non-experienced group |
| Wadsworth et al. (2006) | Cross-sectional study | Workers in the UK | 626 | Black African–Caribbean and Bangladeshi | UK | Work related stress | Racial discrimination at work, gender, negative affect, contract, background noise and the work characteristics, effort–reward imbalance and job demands were associated with work stress |
| Wang and Kanungo (2004) | Cross-sectional study | Expatriates from multinational corporations | 166 | Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Korea, North America and Europe | China (Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian and Suzhou) | Psychological well-being | Overseas experience and establishing the social network were related to psychological well-being |
| Wang and Takeuchi (2007) | Longitudinal study | Expatriates from a multinational manufacturing company | 183 (time 1), 148 (time 2) | USA 69.4%, Canada 14.8%, Australia 11.5% | China | Goal orientation, perceived organisational support, expatriate adjustment, premature return intentions and job performance | Avoiding goal orientation was positively associated with work stress, and perceived organisational support was negatively associated with work stress |
| Weishaar (2008) | Qualitative study | Polish migrants working in manual and low skilled jobs | 17 | Poland | Scotland, UK | Stressors and individual experiences of the health impact of acculturative stress | Everyone mentioned the communication problems in English, which were the barriers for addressing the information. Workers felt difficulty in registration, information about accommodation and work, taxation and benefits. Wage inequalities such as low wage and high workloads were the main factor of stress |
| Winkelman et al. (2013) | Cross-sectional and qualitative study | Latino farmworkers | 29 for qualitative, 57 for quantitative study | Latin America | USA | Stress, depression, and coping behaviours | Family situations, work environment, documentation status and lack of resources were the risk factors of stress and depression |