Representa？？es sociais, saúde mental e imigra？？o internacional

the population movements of people who are more or less organized are a phenomenon as old as humanity. but the migration of millions of people who immigrate today is becoming a process with so intense stress levels that exceeds their capacity of adaptation. this study aims to assess the mental health and analyze the social representation of the constructs immigration, immigrant, mental health and the future of brazilian immigrants who live in the city of geneva, switzerland. this is an exploratory multimethod approach held with a sample of 266 participants who answered the bio-social demographic questionnaire, the instrument for self-reporting questionnaire scrining and the semi-directed interview. the questionnaire data were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (spss.for windows.16), using descriptive and inferential statistics and the content of the interviews through the analysis of bardin (1997/2002). the results showed that the variable time of immigration has favored the emergence of deficits in the mental health of participants. this study concluded that in this context of international immigration the social representations and the mental health of the immigrants are influenced by the duration or by the time of immigration.