• Author: Maimuna Zahra Fariha
• Editor: Elizabeth Harsma
• Date: July 28, 2023

This article is a personal narrative interwoven with data and research-based recommendations. This document is not meant to be comprehensive or prescriptive, but offers perspectives and ways you might incorporate these perspectives into your teaching.

Voices and Experiences of Me and others like me…

Who are international students? They are the students who leave their homes, family, and friends far far away and come to a host country in search of better education and opportunities. In majority of the cases, these students land in a new host country with a lot of hope, excitement, and enthusiasm; But along with the movement, comes culture shock, communication, social struggles, financial struggles, mental health struggles and many challenges that should by understood and addressed by the host institution as much as possible.

To write this article, a brief literature review was conducted to understand the struggles and challenges of international students. Along with the brief literature review, I will also be sharing my experiences and stories of incidents I have faced as an international student on campus both as a student and a teaching assistant.

There are over one million international students studying in the U.S. In the fiscal year 2012-2013, international students contributed $24.7 billion to the U.S. economy through tuition and other living expenses (Gautam, 2016). Özturgut and Murphy (2009) identify that international students play an essential role in assuring adequate numbers of courses are offered at institutions by serving in teacher’s assistant roles, a low pay role that domestic students may not work for.  Özturgut and Murphy (2009) also report that “international alumni are also important sources of capital gifts. When they complete their studies and return to their home countries, they will not only contribute to their alma maters but to the entire goodwill toward the U.S.” The Institute of International Education (IIE, 2013) further provides data that the top ten countries from which these students come are:

• China,
• India,
• South Korea,
• Saudi Arabia,
• Canada,
• Taiwan,
• Japan,
• Vietnam,
• Mexico, and
• Turkey.

The top five programs in which these students engage are:

• Business and Management,
• Engineering,
• Math and Computer Science,
• Social Sciences, and
• Physical and Life Sciences.

Although this statistic is slightly backdated, recent data also shows, “SEVIS reports that as of January 2023 there are 1.08 million international students with active study visas in the US. This compares to a total of 1.14 million in January 2020, just before the onset of the pandemic (a -5.4% decrease overall) (ICEF, 2023). Overtime it can be observed that the number of international students is increasing. It is a positive rise that should be addressed, embraced, and acknowledged more as the number of international students continue to rise.

Some of the struggles international students face when they come to USA for the first time are:

• Being homesick,
• Double identities,
• Adaptation and cultural assimilation,
• Transportation and accommodation,
• Disconnection of international students with the American culture and community,
• Discrimination and bias, and
• Psychological adjustment and mental health.

Being homesick

It is crucial for the host institutions and local communities to understand that these students left their family, their country and came to an unknown place and are at their most vulnerable state. It is very mentally challenging for them. It is not easy for these young individuals who travel thousands of miles away from home, family, and friends to have a better education. Friendship family programs, diversity and student organizations should be established, funded and more active in schools and universities. The shifting to a new country, a new environment, dealing with a new language and new people can make them feel confused and lead a double life. Being an international student myself, I can positively say that I was homesick majority of the time especially when I first had to get used to cooking my own food and managing my own rent to live and also working out of campus as a student worker for the first time.

Double identities

The article authored by Gautam (2016) has very wisely named and defined this issue as, “double identities.” When asking international students about their challenges, “Some of the participants raised the questions of identity. They either were dealing with the double identities, or multiple identities, they felt were created as the result of being international students. For majority of the students English is not their first language” (Gautam, 2016). Language is the key component to interact and communicate with the people around you, when you come, you must maintain speaking in a foreign language to adapt and learn. Whereas, when you are home or interacting with a person from your country you go back to being yourself and speaking in your language how you used to back home. English is my third language. I was born in Bangladesh. My mother is from Bangladesh, but my father is from Pakistan, which led me to know two three languages, Bengali, Urdu, and English. Definitely when I first came to Mankato, I felt like I was playing multiple identities in a day. I would speak on the phone and with people from my community in one language, I would go to class and on campus and speak in another language. Then I also had to talk to relatives in Pakistan in another language! It was very tiring in the beginning. Sometimes it was so overwhelming that I would confuse the voice, comfort, and language I would speak with people on campus in Bengali, and my family at home in English. Now I am used to it. Such changes lead international students to have a lifestyle and source of communication, a character switch on daily basis, and therefore this is the reason why managing dual identities are being mentioned. It is not easy! Gautam (2016)  found many international students have problems related to their identities and notion of self, including a sense of having dual personalities. This may prevent international students from being stable and may keep them from venturing out of their comfort zone (Gautam, 2016).

Adaptation and cultural assimilation

International students automatically need to shift from their comfort zone, their culture, and their habits to adjust and adapt to the primary cultural and environment which can be a confusing and frustrating phase. This change can make them mentally and emotionally impacted. Students can have roommates, but they still feel lonely, sharing your space, being independent can be an overwhelming and emotional journey as well. Another example from Gautam’s article, a South Asian participant shared her dorm with other American friends. She informed the researchers that her roommate was from a big city (Gautam, 2016). It was a big contradiction from what she was accustomed to in her home. In her home she had her private restroom and private space. Sharing restrooms was quite a challenge for her, “I had my personal room, and my own attached place. Here if you need to go to the restroom, then you come out of bed, out of your room, and to the hallway. There are those cubicles for the restrooms,” she explained (Gautam, 2016). An African participant revealed that he feels lonely sometimes. He said: “I do not want to disturb others.” The South American participant who stayed alone in an apartment however took it differently saying: “I was very independent, so I never feel lonely. However, when I am so tired, I question myself, what I am doing here? Where am I? But I make good grades. I am back to work again.” (Gautam, 2016). This contradictory and complex feeling will only be felt by students and individuals who travelled abroad and experienced cultural differences. I also felt this as well, when you live abroad at one point, you seemed to be moving away from reality, things you were used to, you must change it and things you never did you would have to get used to that.

Transportation and accommodation

Another factor that was exposed in this article which is also crucial to understand was transportation. When English is a second language and becomes a challenge, it also become an issue to tackle or manage basic things such as transportation, as an example mentioned in the article, “The transportation was a unique challenge that was directly related to the city of this study. There was not a dependable public transportation system available, an issue that was echoed by several participants” (Gautam, 2016). The participants revealed that even though the university does have a transportation system, it does not adequately meet the needs of individual international students. They also highlighted the complications of getting a driver’s license and being accustomed to driving a car. Owning a car was a huge investment for them, which many of them felt they were unable to afford. “Oh, the transportation is the big issue. I stay close to Campus. I cannot go to Wal-Mart. It is far. I go around to Kroger, CVS” (Gautam, 2016). I can connect with this issue very well. Back in 2013 when I first came to campus for my orientation, I got into the wrong bus three times; I was not able to speak or communicate with the people around or the driver. I was shy, scared, confused, and felt helpless. I ended up reaching my home in almost 2 hours whereas I lived 10 minutes away via bus!

Disconnection of international students with the American culture and community

Assisting the students should not be restricted to more exposure to the same community or “their cultural” events. The institution should focus on introducing events and organizations that also allows American students to grow interest to know and assist these students to learn and communicate better with the American culture. Tendency of American educational institutions to teach “good practices” to international students whereas the focus should be more on allowing and helping them adapt to a new environment, “there is a disconnect between what the literature suggests is “good practice” in accommodating international students and the reality of what is happening on U.S. campuses (Özturgut and Murphy, 2009). Research suggests the importance of establishing relationships with international students so that other “good practices” may occur. After conducting an extensive review of the literature and current good practices, the authors concluded that United States (U.S.) institutions of higher education are not “practicing what they preach” when it comes to meeting the needs of international students. They are not using the research to drive practice in accommodating international students (Özturgut and Murphy, 2009).

Discrimination and bias

There are many Americans or host country members who tend to discriminate and create hatred around expressing their concerns about international students taking advantage. This is a myth. This perception is based in bias and the false narrative that international students are taking away financial and economic opportunities. This misconception needs to be erased with giving more awareness to local community as to why the international students come here to learn, to gain better opportunities, and have a better life. This does not mean they are taking away from the local communities, in fact, international students contributions to the US economy are very helpful and important.  Özturgut and Murphy (2009) provided statistics that support this assertion, “First, the U.S. economy has declined over the past two years causing significant budget shortfalls in most states. Second, there has been a decrease in international students caused by 9/11 restrictions. This effect hurts the economic health of universities.” Misconceptions such as this definitely made me feel like a minority or being looked down upon so many times that at one point I would emotionally be so frustrated that I would cry or be at home regretting being an international student. This is something I am sure all international students felt at one point in their life.

Psychological adjustment and mental health

Psychological adjustment that people make to their social environment is known as adaptation. Every stage of a person’s life, including childhood, adolescence, middle age, old age, and death, involves psychological adjustment and change, which is the process of adjusting to one’s social environment. Self-acceptance, self-enrichment, satisfaction, happiness, and other outcomes of adaptation can be seen. On the contrary, if adaptation is not successful there can be physical and mental harm and dysfunction (Wilczewski et al., 2022). Some of the psychological adaptation that international students experience include cultural distance. Cultural distance is a measure of cultural similarities and differences. Cultural distance can lead to cross-cultural anxiety. Cross-cultural anxiety is almost a necessary stage for every international student, it is difficult to manage and can cause physical and mental discomfort. For cross-cultural adaptation, cultivating international students’ positive attitude toward life and optimistic quality is critical.

Strategies for Supporting International Students

After going down my memory lane along with my brief literature review, I listed some points which I believe are useful to any individuals who wants to make a difference in the lives of international students.

Strategy #1: Orient New Students

Seek out and learn about the resources and programs your institution has for new international students. For example:

• Identify any specific orientation programs and support resources for new international students and encourage your students to engage with those resources.
• Examples of helpful programs might include:
  • Chaperones or mentors with whom they can communicate openly and freely, starting with meeting each other in the airport.
  • Help with academic responsibilities and activities.
  • Support with accommodation and transportation, for example, finding your new apartment and moving in, assisting with travel and communication to/from campus, at least during the first year.