Discusses the interaction of sociocultural forces with elements of personal identity to provide further understanding of mental pathologies observed among Maghrebian immigrants from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia to France in recent years. Psychopathological reactions of immigrants are not specific, but a unifying theme among them can be found in the concept of identity. Powerful social influences acting on the immigrant (e.g., low social status, host-hostility, marked religious differences, limited language facility, reduced or absent social support, differential assimilation by children and parents) exacerbate preexisting weaknesses in the immigrant's personal identity structure. The forced abandonment of native citizenship and an accustomed sociopersonal niche in exchange for economic betterment alone may serve as a precipitant for reactions of anxious-agitation, psychosomatic dysfunction, delusion, or depression in immigrants. It is obligatory that the therapist take into account the sociological, psychological, and cultural characteristics of the migrant's problems, in addition to seeking means of changing the patient's self-image and ways of relating to others.