Enhancing critical global mental health with anthropological ethnography Lessons from studies with ‘traumatized’ migrants

Global inequities in the distribution of mental ill health and mental health care are alarming; mental ill health disproportionally affects low- and middle-income countries, as well as disadvantaged groups in the Global North, such as vulnerable migrants. While critical global mental health is an interdisciplinary and impact-oriented field characterized by a social determinants and community-based approach, the broader field continues to be dominated by a positivist framework and quantitative methods. Additionally, research with underserved populations, including refugees and victims of human trafficking, remains underdeveloped. This chapter therefore advocates for a radical incorporation of anthropological ethnography into critical global mental health. The resulting advantages hinge on the fruitful combination of biomedical and local, community-based, and culturally specific approaches to mental health/care. The chapter seeks to provide anthropologists unfamiliar with critical global mental health with an overview of its evolution, debates, key concepts, and study design. The chapter also invites global mental health professionals to consider the potential of critical global mental health and the ways that qualitative methods and ethnography rooted in critical medical anthropology can enhance this field.