Making the invisible visible

Abstract

There is more global student mobility occurring than ever before, especially when it comes to international students arriving in the United States. More international students are enrolling in degree programs in American higher education institutions, not just coming by themselves for short periods of time anymore. Because of the longer length of stay, many international students are bringing their spouses and families with them during their time abroad. The spouses of international students and how their visa status affects their lives while in the United States is an emerging problem of practice in higher education. In spite of the lack of literature available on the subject, this research study is hoping to change that. For this study, the researcher used Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to examine how international student spouses perceived support services at an urban private institution of higher education located in the New England region of the United States. A qualitative research approach was used to address the following research question: What role do international student spouses perceive institutions of higher education have in terms of offering support services? This particular research study focused on a total of five international student spouses who had come to the United States originally on a F2 dependent visa sponsored by an urban institution of higher education located in the New England region of the United States. In order to provide the data for this particular study, the researcher used in-depth interviews in open-ended format when interacting with the participants. The primary research question in addition to the interview questions were based off of John Berry's (1992; 1997; 2003; 2005; 2006 ) acculturation theory which provided the theoretical framework for the research study which was used to analyze the findings. The qualitative data from the study resulted in four major conclusions which in turn answered the research question. The first finding noted the need for better communication between spouses of international education and the institution. Second, the institution needed to provide more opportunities for international student spouses to integrate into the campus community. Third, there was an immediate need to provide more on-ground support through the creation of an administrative role which would handle any concerns or questions spouses of international students might have during their time as part of the campus community. Lastly, this study unearthed new findings including how highly educated dependents were, need for affordable housing, and switching from an F2 dependent visa to F1 student visa status. All had not been talked about in prior literature. This particular research study is significant because it used Interpretive Phenomenological Approach (IPA) to gain extremely detailed accounts on what support services international student spouses expected to receive in relation to, in this specific case, the lack of services which were provided to them in actuality. The results of this research study can be used to inform international program offices at institutions of higher education across the United States which support services benefit and should be provided to help with the acculturation of international student spouses.