ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Health Economics
This article is part of the Research TopicPublic Health Outcomes: The Role of Social Security Systems in Improving Residents' Health Welfare, Volume IIView all 24 articles
How does livelihood capital alleviate psychological anxiety among immigrants?
Provisionally accepted
Huishuang Jin*
Hui Liu- Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China
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The world is facing a surge in migration, with global migrant numbers soaring. Their mental health issues cannot be overlooked. Livelihood capital, as a core resource for human survival and development, plays a vital role in safeguarding immigrants' living standards and alleviating anxiety. Existing research has focused on single dimensions such as education, social capital, and housing conditions, overlooking the fact that livelihood capital is the result of the synergistic effects of multiple forms of capital. Moreover, previous literature has overlooked the role played by communities. Exploring this issue from the perspective of community governance capacity can fill this gap. Therefore, this study employs micro-level survey data from Hunan Province, China, and utilizes models such as the Oprobit model to empirically analyze the impact of livelihood capital on the anxiety levels of relocated poverty alleviation migrants. It also examines the roles played by livelihood strategies and community governance capabilities in this process. The regression results indicate that livelihood capital significantly reduces immigrants' anxiety levels. Mechanism testing results indicate that livelihood capital can alleviate migrants' psychological anxiety by improving livelihood strategies. Community governance capacity exerts a positive moderating effect on the influence of livelihood capital on immigrants' psychological anxiety. Moreover, the contribution of livelihood capital to immigrants' psychological anxiety varies across different settlement patterns, relocation duration, and age structures. Therefore, efforts should be made to enhance immigrants' livelihood resources through multiple channels, strengthen the alignment between livelihood resources and livelihood strategies, and improve community governance capabilities, thereby safeguarding immigrants' mental health.
Keywords: Anxiety, Livelihood capital, Community Governance Capacity, strategies, Migration, China
Received: 08 Sep 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jin and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Huishuang Jin, jhs@stu.hunau.edu.cn
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