Sojourners navigating structural constraints: international student spouses learning English in an informal centre

Abstract

ABSTRACT Women accompanying their husbands to pursue graduate degrees abroad inhabit complex social locations that have economic, social, and personal implications. This paper draws from a broader study of literacy practices in an informal university centre to focus on the gendered structural constraints and experiences of sojourners to the United States, who as ‘good spouses’ accompany their husbands to pursue the educational promise of the Global North, leaving their native languages, cultures, social networks, and occupations behind. Some spouses experience a psychic, temporal, and geographic state of ‘idleness’ as they wait for their husbands to fulfil educational and professional commitments. Informal educational centres serve as vital generative spaces of possibility and comfort to cultivate agency and community through social interaction and language learning. Yet such potential operates only within constraints, as sojourners’ mobility and hopes remain linked to their position as dependents and their lack of social capital in the host country.