From Integration Deficit to Imbalanced Integration: Digital–Social Mechanisms Across Places and Migrants' Mental Health

ABSTRACT

Migrants' mental health has become an increasing public health concern amid persistent social and cultural displacement. Although social integration is widely recognised as a key determinant of mental health, existing research has largely focused on integration deficits, while overlooking imbalanced forms of integration. We address this gap by examining superficial integration, in which frequent face‐to‐face interactions outpace migrants' sense of belonging. Using original survey data from Wuhan and multigroup structural equation modelling (MG‐SEM), we investigated how social integration influences migrants' mental health through digital‐social processes across generations. We found that the mental health consequences of social integration depend not on social interaction or belonging alone, but on their social asymmetries. Frequent interactions become psychologically detrimental when they are not accompanied by a corresponding sense of belonging, revealing the adverse effects of superficial integration. We further identified two complementary mechanisms underlying this relationship. First, social media engagement intensifies the health consequences of social integration by strengthening both the benefits of belonging and the psychological costs of interaction. Second, a stronger destination‐city belonging reduces perceived relative deprivation with respect to migrants' places of origin, thereby improving mental health, particularly among younger migrants. By moving beyond the deficit‐based view of migrant integration, this study highlights the importance of examining how integration unfolds unevenly across social, digital, and spatial contexts. Our findings call for policies that go beyond increasing social contact and instead promote meaningful, emotionally supportive, and locally embedded forms of integration.