The Specialization course in Mental Health, Immigration, and Interculturality was the first course offered in this theme and interdisciplinary format in Brazil. Initially, in 2017, we offered a short-term extramural course at UNIFESP to understand the demand for the subject. Given the high demand and success of the course, it was offered in 2018 in a professional development format.

In this modality, supervision of the practical work carried out by the professional was offered. In 2019, given the success and continued demand for the course, we offered it in the Specialization modality, expanding the supervision groups.

Since then, we have been requested to offer the course, continuously receiving messages from interested ones.

Thus, the distance learning course offered by UNIFESP through the Open University of Brazil System (UAB) allows us to continue disseminating this knowledge and exchange on a topic so important to Brazilian and global reality.

Displacement and its intercultural contacts present profound subjective challenges both for those who immigrate and for the societies that receive the new groups. Immigration and refuge demand institutional changes for which the country needs to prepare.

In Brazil, alongside successful welcoming initiatives in various public, private, or philanthropic institutions, situations of discrimination, xenophobia, stigmatization, racism, and pathologization also occur, on the part of a society known for being hospitable.

The course therefore responds to this social demand so that health, social assistance, education, and other interested workers understand the immigration process from a psychodynamic intercultural perspective, aiming for a broad and deep understanding of the migratory process and thus avoiding discriminatory actions. In this sense, the professional will learn about their history and culture, the history of immigration in Brazil, the history of slavery, and how contact with the original population occurred and continues to occur. They will also understand the specific psychological process of immigration and its various dimensions. Furthermore, the course also contributes to the promotion of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (UN, 2016).

The course aims to provide specialized training for professionals working with immigrant, refugee, and stateless persons (MRA) populations, enabling them to implement mental health prevention and promotion within this population using the theoretical and methodological framework of the psychodynamic intercultural approach. The intercultural approach is an interdisciplinary approach par excellence, facilitating a closer understanding of the complexity of the subject. This involves understanding the social, historical, and cultural contexts, as well as the supervision of practical work, in order to prevent the reproduction of prejudiced, racist, xenophobic, and pathologizing ideas and behaviors regarding migrants.

Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Doctors, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Social Workers, Educators, Human Rights Workers, and others who may work with this population in the future.

Research Group Contact between Cultures, Immigration, Mental Health and Interculturality

• http://dgp.cnpq.br/dgp/faces/consulta/consulta_parametrizada.jsf

Supervision for master's and doctoral degrees in the Postgraduate Program in Humanities, Rights and Other Legitimacies (PPGHDL), linked to the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH) of the University of São Paulo (USP), with Professor Sylvia Dantas

• https://ppghdl.fflch.usp.br/linhas-de-pesquisa