Hortensia de los Santos
Author, Researcher, Theorist

Dislocated Minds: The Cognitive and Emotional Cost of Migration

The Neurological Effects of Environmental Displacement in Immigrants”

The psychology of the immigrant has been a longtime interest for me. I have considered the effect a new natural environment has on the brain functioning. The fact that the immigrants must adapt and recognize everything that now surrounds them takes a toll in their learning

There’s a quiet truth that many immigrants carry but rarely speak aloud: “I don’t feel as smart as I used to be.” Even highly educated, experienced people—engineers, doctors, professors—suddenly find themselves forgetting words, struggling to learn new systems, or feeling overwhelmed by simple tasks. Many blame age, stress, or the language barrier, but the truth is deeper and more universal.

It begins in the brain.

Long before we take our first steps, we begin learning. Even in the womb, a child absorbs the rhythm of their native language, the emotional tone of their mother’s voice, and the subtle sounds of their natural environment. After birth, that sensory world expands—smells, landscapes, seasons, voices, customs. These experiences become our brain’s internal blueprint of home—a map that tells us what’s familiar, what’s safe, and what to expect.

But when someone migrates—especially later in life—that map becomes useless. The trees are different. The sounds are unfamiliar. Even the sunlight looks strange. The brain, which has spent decades working off one set of cues, now has to rebuild its understanding from scratch. And that takes a toll.

Suddenly, the brain is forced into survival mode, always scanning, always adapting. This constant alertness uses up energy that would normally go toward memory, learning, and confidence. It’s not that you’re less intelligent—it’s that your brain is trying to rebuild a world around you while keeping you safe in an unknown land.

Environmental Stress and Cognitive Load

Immigrants must re-map their mental framework to a completely new environment:

• The new geography, language, customs, and even climate forces a constant alertness and adaptation which strain working memory and executive functioning.
• The brain prioritizes survival and immediate adjustment, which can crowd out long-term learning or memory consolidation.
• While the brain is plastic and capable of adapting, the rewiring required in a new cultural context can cause a temporary cognitive dip, especially when combined with emotional strain (loss, grief, fear).
• For adults, this re-learning often competes with already ingrained neural pathways, making learning slower and more exhausting.
• Operating in a second language daily, especially in high-stakes or unfamiliar contexts, taxes mental resources.
• Even professionals may experience what’s known as “language fatigue,” which reduces their ability to think fluidly, affecting memory and confidence.
• Immigrants often experience identity fragmentation, loneliness, or loss of status. These emotional stressors increase cortisol levels, which are directly linked to memory impairment and reduced cognitive flexibility.
• The shift in natural surroundings—new light patterns, smells, sounds, and flora/fauna—can deeply unsettle the subconscious. This sensory dissonance can create a subtle form of disorientation, affecting spatial memory and even circadian rhythm, which influences learning and mental performance.

Why is this happening to me?

Early Neurodevelopment and Environmental Imprinting

• From the third trimester onward, a fetus begins learning: the mother's voice, rhythms of the native language, even the ambient sounds of the environment (like birds, weather, traffic).
• In the first few years, the brain is incredibly plastic and absorbent, building deep neural patterns based on everything from the local smells and textures to the emotional tone of caregivers.
• These early imprints form a neuro-environmental baseline—a mental map of “home,” which includes safety cues.

Disruption of the “Neuro-Home” in Immigrants

• When an immigrant is removed from the environment that shaped their earliest neural wiring, there’s a sudden mismatch between internal memory and external reality.
• This creates a kind of cognitive dissonance: their inner map no longer matches the terrain. The result? A sense of being lost—not just geographically, but neurologically.
• For many, this translates into mental fog, weakened memory retrieval, slower information processing, and even a subtle identity crisis.

Fear, the Unknown, and Re-Learning

• Adapting to a new world while under constant low-level fear (whether from language struggles, unfamiliar customs, or societal prejudice) activates the amygdala.
• The amygdala prioritizes survival over long-term learning, which means learning new things in a state of fearbecomes incredibly difficult.
• Even highly educated professionals may find themselves forgetting vocabulary, struggling to absorb new systems, or hesitating to make decisions, because fear “blocks” access to their full cognitive capacity.

  The Cost of Re-Learning

  • What the brain once learned passively as a child—like environmental familiarity, social norms, facial cues, even walking on certain types of terrain—now must be consciously re-learned as an adult.
  • This re-learning is not just mental—it’s physical, emotional, and sensory. And unlike in childhood, adult brains do this more slowly, and usually under pressure.

  Why Memory Feels Foggy

  • Memory isn’t just about recalling facts or events—it’s about recognizing patterns. In your home country, your brain worked like a well-oiled machine. It knew what smells belonged in the air, what faces looked familiar, which way to turn at the market. This familiarity made it easy to remember things because your brain didn’t have to work hard to interpret the world around you.
  • But now, nothing is automatic. Every street sign, every conversation, every social interaction requires effort. Your brain is overloaded trying to understand this new environment, so it doesn't have as much space left to store memories. It’s like trying to memorize a phone number while dodging traffic—your survival brain takes over, and your memory takes a back seat.
  • Also, fear and uncertainty activate a part of the brain called the amygdala, which controls emotional responses. When the amygdala is active—because of stress, fear of making mistakes, or being judged—it interrupts the memory-forming process in the hippocampus. That’s why you might forget things more easily or struggle to focus. It's not a personal failure. It's biology.

  Why Learning Is Harder Now

  • Learning something new as an adult is already a challenge—but learning while uprooted, under pressure, and in a different language? That’s a whole new level.
  • When you were a child, your brain was like a sponge. It was made to absorb new information, and it did so in a world that felt familiar and safe. But as an immigrant, you’re often trying to learn while under stress—and stress is the enemy of learning.
  • Why? Because your brain can’t fully focus when it feels threatened. Even small things—a look you don’t understand, a word you mispronounce, a form you don’t know how to fill out—can trigger a fear response. And when fear kicks in, your brain shifts into survival mode. It’s no longer interested in new knowledge—it just wants to protect you. This is why even smart, capable people can feel stuck, slow, or confused. It’s not because you’re not trying. It’s because your brain is protecting you the best way it knows how.
  • Another reason learning feels harder is because you’re not just learning a language or a system—you’re learning a whole new way of being. You’re learning how to read faces in a different culture, how to sound polite in a new language, how to navigate everything from social rules to public transportation. That’s a lot of information, all at once.

  • So if you feel frustrated with yourself, please know this: your brain is working overtime. Learning under these conditions takes more energy, more patience, and more kindness toward yourself.

  Why You Don’t Feel Like Yourself

  • One of the hardest parts of starting over in a new country is the quiet loss of identity. Back home, you knew who you were. You had a place, a rhythm, a reputation—even if life wasn’t perfect, it was yours. You understood how to move through the world.
  • But now, everything has changed. People see you differently. You may speak more slowly, search for words, or feel unsure of your decisions. Sometimes, you feel invisible. Other times, you feel misunderstood. And slowly, you begin to question the very things that once made you you.
  • This happens not because you’ve changed inside, but because your surroundings no longer reflect who you are. Your inner self is still there—but it’s not being seen or recognized in the same way. That mismatch creates confusion and self-doubt. You might wonder, “Why can’t I just be who I was?”
  • The answer is: you still are. But the mirror around you has changed. And until your new environment begins to reflect back your strengths, your humor, your talents—you might feel like a stranger, even to yourself.
  • That’s not weakness. It’s part of the process. And slowly, as you rebuild your life and create new relationships, that inner identity starts to show again—sometimes in new and beautiful ways.

  How to Reclaim Your Mental Strength

  The truth is, your brain is incredibly resilient. Just like the rest of you, it adapts, rebuilds, and grows stronger—but it needs the right conditions to do so. Here are some ways to support yourself as you adjust to your new life:
  1. Give Yourself Permission to Be New. You’re not failing—you’re rebuilding. Allow yourself to make mistakes, to feel tired, to forget things. This isn’t weakness—it’s part of transformation. You’re not just learning new facts; you’re growing new neural pathways, and that takes energy.
  2. Reconnect with the Familiar. Your brain craves safety. Bring in smells, music, foods, and routines from your home country. These aren’t just comfort—they’re anchors that help stabilize your nervous system. They remind your brain, “I know who I am.”
  3. Rest Without Guilt. Cognitive fatigue is real. If you find yourself mentally exhausted by midday, it’s not laziness—it’s overload. Sleep, quiet, nature, and time without pressure help your brain reset. Rest isn’t a luxury here—it’s medicine.
  4. Learn with Compassion, Not Competition. Don’t compare your learning pace to others. You’re not starting from scratch—you’re layering new knowledge on top of a rich, complex past. Be proud of the courage it takes to start over.
  5. Talk About It. Many immigrants carry this burden in silence. Just naming the experience—“I feel like my mind doesn’t work the same”—can bring relief. When others say, “Me too,” healing begins.

  Conclusion: You’re Not Broken—You’re Becoming

  If your mind feels slower, your confidence shaken, or your memory distant, know this: you are not alone, and you are not broken. You are going through something most people will never understand—the rebuilding of a self in unfamiliar soil. And like any transplant, it takes time for the roots to settle, for the leaves to turn upward again, for strength to return.

  But it does return. Not in the exact same form, perhaps—but in a deeper, wiser version of yourself. One that has seen the world shift beneath your feet and learned to stand anyway. One that carries two homes in one body. One that is still learning—but is also still whole.

  Your brain is adapting. Your spirit is working quietly. And your strength is growing, even on the days it doesn’t feel like it.

  So take your time. Be kind to yourself. And never forget—you are doing something extraordinary.