Background: Immigrants and refugees constitute over 23% of Canada's population and face disproportionate mental health challenges, including elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For marginalized groups such as immigrants/refuges, frequent exposure to racist events is a key predictor of these mental health outcomes, as repeated experiences of racism can undermine safety, belonging, and dignity. Prior research, including studies with Chinese immigrants, has shown that more frequent racist events are associated with higher levels of race-based traumatic stress symptoms (racial trauma), manifesting as anger, avoidance, intrusion, hypervigilance, and diminished self-worth. However, few studies have comprehensively examined the links among racist events, racial trauma, and mental health symptoms in Canadian immigrants/refugees. To address this gap, this study examines how racist events relate to mental health symptoms (PTSD, depression, anxiety) both directly and indirectly through racial trauma.


Methods: A sample of 181 immigrants and refugees in Canada completed self-report measures.


Results: The PROCESS Model 4 results indicated that racial trauma significantly explained the relationship between racist events and mental health outcomes, including PTSD (B = 0.35, CI [0.20, 0.56], depression (B = 0.11, CI [0.06, 0.18]), and anxiety (B = 0.12, CI [0.08, 0.17]). The model accounted for 20.56% to 45.68% of the variances in mental health outcomes.


Conclusions: Greater exposure to racist events increases the likelihood of experiencing racial trauma, which in turn contributes to elevated PTSD, depression, and anxiety symptoms. These findings highlight racial trauma as a distinct contributor to mental health disparities among immigrants and refugees. Clinicians, community organizations, and policymakers should integrate anti-racism strategies and racial trauma frameworks to better support the mental health of these populations.