Disconnections with the Host Nation and the Significance of International Student Communities: A Case Study of Asian International Students in Australia and Singapore

Abstract

In this chapter, I look at Asian international students in Australia and Singapore and their disconnectedness with local students. Here I suggest that these students create parallel societies for themselves in the host nation based on their identities as international students or as diasporic nationals. These parallel societies while impermanent exist for the benefit and support of their members throughout their transience. Through extensive interviews with 106 international students from Asia across established international education hub in Australia and emerging international student destination in Singapore, my research reveals that these students hold aspirations for cosmopolitan mobility with ambitions to live and work in the big cities of Europe, North America and Asia with a view to return to the home nation eventually or possibly in the future. Moreover my study reveals that the respondents’ cosmopolitan mobility is encouraged by their lived experiences in Australia and Singapore. Here I highlight their ability to form friendship networks with fellow international students from their home nation and from elsewhere in Asia. This they do, for a range of reasons, in lieu of friendships with locals. I also refer to their capacity to find a sense of belonging to their home nation through rapid developments in communication and media technologies.