Lives Of International Students Research Articles

Managing Financial Life: Examining the Factors Impacting the Financial Literacy of Indonesian Students Studying Abroad

Introduction/Main Objectives: The number of Indonesian students who study abroad has expanded significantly during the past few decades. Nonetheless, the nation has a lot of variables that would assist in the growth of overseas students leaving the country in the future. Consequently, this study aims to investigate the variables influencing the financial literacy of Indonesian students participating in international exchange programs. This study empirically examines how students' financial behavior could be affected by their financial knowledge, financial attitude, and financial culture. It also tests how financial literacy can be directly influenced by financial behavior. Additionally, the mediating role of financial behavior has been evaluated. Background Problems: Notwithstanding the rise in the number of students enrolled in international programs, and the availability of such programs in educational institutions worldwide, these students will confront numerous obstacles and difficulties. A vital skill for these students to possess is financial literacy, since there is a lot of emphasis on cost-saving when pursuing higher education in a global setting. However, studies into financial literacy are noticeably lacking, particularly in emerging nations such as Indonesia. Novelty: The current paper adds to the limited studies concerning the financial life of international students by developing an integrated framework to examine the most crucial factors impacting the financial literacy of Indonesian students participating in international exchange programs. Research Methods: An online survey was conducted to gather the primary data from the respondents. The acquired data were analyzed using PLS-SEM. Finding/Results: The research findings showed that financial literacy was significantly impacted by financial behavior, which in turn was impacted by financial knowledge, financial attitudes, and financial culture. The relationship between financial knowledge, financial attitudes, financial culture, and financial literacy was found to be significantly mediated by financial behavior. Conclusion: The present work provides theoretical and managerial contributions regarding managing the financial life of international students in Indonesia.

The Impact of Social Media on the Upper Chinese and Patriotic Chinese Groups of Overseas Chinese Students

In the 21st century, more and more Chinese students choose to go abroad and study overseas; studying abroad is gradually no longer a small option but gradually, like Postgraduate examinations and Civil service examinations, becoming a significant choice for college students to continue their studies. However, in addition to paying attention to the material life of international students, more and more attention has begun to focus on the spiritual life of international students in recent years. As an international student with a unique cross-cultural identity, what kind of change of thinking will occur after accepting the media context of their ethnic media and overseas social media has become the focus of attention. This paper uses the theories of self-classification, social identity, and belief theory to conduct research to explore how social media affects changing the thinking of international students in todays highly-developed world. This paper adopts the research method of in-depth interviews, with interviews 20 international students from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and other countries to obtain first-hand information for research, and analyzes that People born in 95 - 00 years (contemporary international students) are keen to use social media and social media accounts for a high proportion of their lives. At the same time, it is concluded that most contemporary international students are relatively rational and objective and have high patriotic enthusiasm. still there are also very obvious upper Chinese and patriotic Chinese groups. But the upper Chinese group is not welcome among overseas students. In general, contemporary international students have high patriotic feelings and good critical thinking skills. They can think about problems from multiple angles, and international students can be used as a bridge for cultural exchanges. In that case, China can go more to the world and the world can know more about China.

Study Abroad and its Impacts on Quality of Life of International Students

Study Abroad and its Impacts on Quality of Life of International Students

Perceptions towards the COVID-19 Pandemic during Different Lockdown Levels among International Students in Taiwan.

International students face many impediments under the COVID-19 pandemic. The objectives of this study are to assess the association between the perceptions of international students and the lockdown policy for COVID-19. In 2021, three different levels of lockdown policy were enforced, including level I from January to April, level III from May to July, and level II from August to December. We conducted three surveys for international graduate students using a validated questionnaire during the different lockdown levels. We collected 185, 119, and 83 valid questionnaires in level I, II, and III, respectively. There were linear trends in the correlations of lockdown policy with the knowledge (p = 0.052), attitudes (p = 0.002), and practices (p < 0.001) of COVID-19. In brief, the stricter the lockdown policy, the better the students adhered to sufficient knowledge, positive attitudes, and healthy practices. Furthermore, there were significant linear correlations of lockdown policy with the transportation, school study, leisure, family life, and diet behavior. In conclusion, lockdown policy had important impacts on the knowledge, attitudes, practices, and daily lives of international students. The findings indicated that the lockdown system and its corresponding measures appear to affect perceptions in a positive way.

The experience of loneliness among international students participating in the BBC Loneliness Experiment: Thematic analysis of qualitative survey data

Loneliness is associated with poor mental and physical health in the general population. It is thought to be prevalent among international students, but few studies have investigated this. To capture what loneliness means in the everyday lives of international students we analysed data from 521 international students aged 16–40 years who participated online in the 2018 British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Loneliness Experiment. Using the approach of thematic analysis of free‐text responses to a question probing the perceived meaning of loneliness, we identified six main themes: (1) Negative psychological and social aspects of loneliness; (2) The distressing experience of being alone; (3) Disrupted ability to make meaningful connections; (4) Sense of entrapment in a state of loneliness; (5) Awareness of others’ stigmatizing perceptions of oneself as lonely; (6) Perceptions of positive aspects of loneliness. These findings identified a range of negative social and psychological dimensions of loneliness in international students in relation to their well-being, emotional health, and social functioning, hampering the benefits to be gained from their overseas study. Higher education teaching staff, pastoral staff, and mental health professionals need to be more aware of the prevalence and impacts of loneliness and should tackle it in culturally appropriate ways.

Academic integration in higher education: A review of effective institutional strategies and personal factors

Globally, there has been a surge in international students, posing challenges to their host institutions. The review aimed to identify institutional strategies and personal factors that promote international students' academic integration. With an independent systematic review of titles, abstracts, and full texts, 64 studies were sampled and analyzed. The study presented findings through a narrative synthesis across all studies. The review results showed that there have been an increasing number of studies on academic integration over the last decade. Institutional strategies like staff and student interaction, student orientation programs, classroom organization, supervisory support, and learning communities are more effective in promoting healthy academic lives and the academic progress of students. Personal factors, which include financial status, language ability, and self-efficacy in students, were revealed to facilitate healthy academic lives and progress on campus. Prioritizing international students' welfare, providing language adaptation support, and increasing the accessibility of academic staff were suggested strategies for improving the academic lives of international students. The study also recommends that tertiary education systems and other stakeholders take these institutional strategies and personal factors into account when developing higher education policies. This will help international students have better academic lives and stay in school.

Work abroad

This research is focused upon the work, education and life of international students and the challenges faced by them. We generally have seen the craze of settling abroad and a special importance given to NRI students. In this research we aim to understand the challenges faced by them. How they hold up on themselves in the new country alone. This research is done through a questionnaire which consist some open ended and close ended questions related to the physical, mental and emotional struggle faced by the students abroad. Few interviews of the parents of students in India were also done and we observe them keenly how they feel living apart from their children. The result of the research was up to the mark of the reality. Students facing financial crisis, homesickness, cultural barrier. Having accommodation issues. Trouble in learning new laws and adapting the new governing system. Struggling between study and part time jobs with drain them mentally and physically resulting in the loss of studies and knowledge. Mental pressure and depression and medication facilities. All these challenges mentioned above are the outcomes of the research.

COVID-19 Pandemic Experiences: Cross-Border Voices of International Graduate Students in Australia and America

The study analyses cross-border experiences of international graduate students in two universities, one in Australia and the other in the United States of America, during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand how this impacted their learning and wellbeing. COVID-19 crisis led to dramatic changes in higher education institutions worldwide, affecting the academic and social life of international students, and as well opening windows of opportunities for them. International students of African and Asian backgrounds were purposely selected for the study. Data were collected with an open-ended qualitative questionnaire and analysed thematically. Findings indicate international students had mixed experiences, including stress and hardship, isolation, fear and insecurity, frustration and helplessness that affected their academic and social lives and wellbeing. Other students however developed strong connections, resilience, confidence, and optimism for the future. The shared cross-border experiences raise awareness to the global impact of COVID-19 in higher education. Findings have implications for how universities could respond to the needs of international students, which must be inclusive, equitable, and human-centric, during unforeseen crises.

Academic and adaptation challenges faced by international students: A case study of MUET, Jamshoro

The present study aimed at exploring how academic and adaptation challenges affect the lives of international students at a public-sector university of Sindh i.e. Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro. It was a case study and ten international undergraduate students were treated as ten different cases. Semi-structured interviews were conducted from each of them. The transcribed interviews were then analyzed thematically. The findings suggested that the foreign students in MUET, Jamshoro faced both academic and adaptation challenges. These included, English language problems in terms of their inability to understand lectures if English is not the medium of instruction, difficulty surviving in the new environment due to uncommon language between them and the locals, all of which lead to identity shift and social stigma. So, teachers should make sure they cater to the needs of both national and international students. Once, the issue of medium of instruction will be sorted, the students’ learning experience will be remarkable. They will have time to focus on their studies, after that they will gradually learn Urdu which will help them survive and adjust in their new social and academic environment. These students have to invest in learning a new language, improving English, and adapting to the host environment by all means. Keywords, Adaptation, Academic, English Language, MUET, challenges. DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/83-07 Publication date: November 30 th 2021

Navigating Through Uncertainty in the Era of COVID-19

With the spread of COVID-19 around the world, the lives of international students became affected by a sudden shift to online learning, sheltering in place, and travel restrictions. Drawing upon the stress and coping framework, this study explores the experiences and coping of international graduate students at a large Western research university in the United States. We employed a phenomenological inquiry of in-depth interviews with 20 participants. Findings reveal the increased levels of stress and anxiety among participants as they faced academic challenges, personal challenges, and immigration-related uncertainties. Over time, students developed emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies to minimize the impact of the pandemic on their lives. Participants’ concerns about the host country’s treatment of international students raise important questions about the future of international student mobility. Finally, this study demonstrates the need to develop emergency responding mechanisms of the host institution.

Immobility, precarity and the Covid-19 pandemic: the impact of lockdown on international students in Portugal

ABSTRACT This article looks at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic among international students in Portugal, focusing on their experiences during the Spring 2020 lockdown. The discussion begins with an outline of the research context, and recognition of the inherent precarity of much international student life. Our research questions hence look not only at the immediate impact of the pandemic on internationalised learning but also the heightening of pre-existing economic vulnerability among many of our research subjects. Using evidence taken from 27 interviews, we document their experiences, including the challenge of maintaining communications and coping with social isolation, and look at how the pandemic has undermined the financial integrity of international studentship. In conclusion, we argue that in addition to widespread stress and anxiety the pandemic has created additional forms of precarity for this cohort, creating a need to integrate better support measures into the governance of mobility at tertiary education level.

An analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the lives of international students with a focus on the situation in Germany

본 연구는 독일의 상황을 중심으로 COVID-19 대유행이, 해외 거주중인 유학생들의삶에 어떤 영향을 미쳤는지에 대해 연구하였다. 이 연구결과는 COVID-19 바이러스확산을 막기 위한 사회 봉쇄가 전 세계 유학생들의 사회적 고립, 정서적 고통, 재정적어려움을 악화시켰다는 것을 보여준다. 사회 봉쇄와 캠퍼스 폐쇄가 계속되는 동안, 이연구의 초점인 독일 내 외국인 유학생들은 사회적 고립과 직업상실로 인한 경제적 어려움, 그리고 학업 중퇴에 대한 불안, 거주 신분과 관련된 두려움으로 고통받고 있다. 독일 내 거주 중인 개발도상국가 유학생들의 경우, 건강과 안전에 대한 우려보다는독일의 경제 상황에 대한 불안과 취업 전망에 대한 우려가 더 높았다. COVID-19 대유행기간 동안 독일 내 외국인 유학생들이 직면했던 수많은 어려움에도 불구하고, 해외 유학장소로서 매력이 지속된다면, 독일로의 유학생이동성(ISM) 회복이 가능할 것이다. 이것은 또한 COVID-19 대유행 기간 동안 독일내 유학생들이 받는 지원의 질과 관련이있을 것이다.Focusing on the situation in Germany, this study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has impinged on the lives of international students in their host countries. The findings reveal that COVID-19 virus protection measures have aggravated the social isolation, emotional distress, and financial hardship of international students worldwide. Whilst lockdowns and campus closures continue, international students in Germany suffer from growing social isolation, loss of student jobs, fear related to a potential dropout from studies, and a likely loss of resident status. For international students from developing countries, concerns about financial insecurity and poor job prospects in Germany seem more pressing than health and safety concerns. Despite the numerous challenges faced by international students during the pandemic, a revival of previous inbound student mobility growth to Germany is possible, if perceptions of Germany as an attractive overseas study destination sustain. This will also depend on the quality of support international students in Germany receive during the pandemic.

‘It’s Like Waking Up in the Library’

This article examines how lockdown measures have affected international students living in an international student dorm in Copenhagen. During the COVID-19 lockdown in Denmark from March to June, the dorm, which was previously considered a domestic space only, emerged as a closed circuit that collapsed into a single space living, work and leisure activities. The article shows that due to the lack of physical, mental and temporal demarcations between spaces of work and leisure, the dorm as a closed circuit has altered social and intimate relations. Drawing on concepts of non-places, home, and hyper-places, it argues that the life of international students was particularly disrupted by the COVID-19 lockdown.

Stress-Related Growth Associated With Acculturation and Mental Health Among International Students

Little information exists on the application of stress-related growth as a theoretical framework in the lives of international students studying in an Eastern culture. The purpose of this study is to capture positive outcomes associated with acculturation among international students living in South Korea. Using constructivist grounded theory, 18 participants took part in this study. The findings identified four main themes: (a) the experience of cultural growth, (b) the creation of inter–intra group friendships, (c) the experience of personal growth, and (d) improved life satisfaction. It appeared that these benefits indicate that acculturation can produce a context in which people can promote their social and psychological well-being.

Redefining the Immigrant South: Indian and Pakistani Immigration to Houston during the Cold War by Uzma Quraishi

Reviewed by: Redefining the Immigrant South: Indian and Pakistani Immigration to Houston during the Cold War by Uzma Quraishi Son Mai Redefining the Immigrant South: Indian and Pakistani Immigration to Houston during the Cold War. By Uzma Quraishi. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020. Pp. 336. Illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index.) During the Cold War, the United States sought to promote capitalism and support non-communist governments around the world. As part of this initiative, President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 established the United States Information Service (USIS) as a cultural diplomacy vehicle to encourage American democratic values to the world as well as to serve as a bulwark against Soviet influeces, particularly in fledgling postcolonial nations. One major USIS project was to promote the American higher education system as a pathway for citizens in developing countries to achieve a prosperous lifestyle and to contribute to the advancement of their home country. However, professional job opportunities in developing nations remained low throughout the Cold War era, but during the same period, the United States experienced economic growth. This resulted in many international students who studied in the United States joining the American workforce after graduation and starting new ethnic communities in many cities across the country. Redefining the American South is a culmination of Uzma Quraishi's extensive research, which focuses on the results of the USIS's international higher education initiative as it pertained to South Asia, and its contribution to an unexpected outcome—the creation and development of permanent Bangladeshi, Indian, and Pakistani ethnic communities in the Houston, Texas, area. Quraishi provides ample context in her narrative regarding the complex political and cultural backgrounds of multiethnic, multilingual, and multireligious South Asia. From there, she effectively transitions to the United States and finally to the Houston metropolitan area. Quraishi provides readers with a richly detailed account of USIS campaigns to compel South Asian students to choose international study in the United States and focuses on those who matriculated at the University of Houston. Additionally, the author makes effective use of student organization archives and oral interviews to depict international student life in the United States during the Cold War. The Cold War era also included the civil rights movement, which ushered demographic changes into many neighborhoods as federal legislation ended racially discriminatory housing restrictions. During this same period, many of the first cohorts of South Asian international students [End Page 370] who arrived under USIS's aegis completed their studies and remained in the United States to pursue professional careers. The transitions from college life to the workforce led to migration away from student housing near Houston's Third Ward neighborhoods toward the formation of ethnic environs—primarily in the Sharpstown, Alief, and Sugar Land areas—that provided a greater sense of cultural camaraderie. As Indian, Pakistani, and later Bangladeshi groups began to form ethnic communities, Houston underwent a period of suburbanization and an exodus of Whites. Quraishi provides readers with an interesting take on the role of South Asians in Houston's suburbanization process: as a group now deemed by Whites as part of a "model minority," Bangladeshi, Indian, and Pakistani Americans actively participated in White movements away from predominantly African American and Hispanic neighborhoods. In comparing South Asian neighborhood settlement experiences in the Houston area, Quraishi emphasizes motivations similar to that of Whites as class-based, with crime rates, public school quality, and dominant youth cultures as moderating influences. Despite the book's subtitle, Quraishi's study of Indian and Pakistani immigration to Houston is not limited to the Cold War, and the migration patterns of South Asian Americans in the area continue to evolve to this day. Overall, Redefining the Immigrant South is a welcome contribution to a growing body of literature in Texas community studies. Son Mai McNeese State University Copyright © 2021 The Texas State Historical Association

A Basis to Be Here: Stories from International Graduate Students in the United States

SummaryRecent guidance from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement drastically altered the lives of international students in America, especially those who are matriculating. This commentary describes how international students still face uncertainty concerning their visa statuses and their place in American society.

Capabilities and the “Value” Flows of International Graduate Returnees and Their Networks

Capabilities and the “Value” Flows of International Graduate Returnees and Their Networks

Enabling international student families: new empiricisms and posthumanist entanglements in higher education

ABSTRACTThis paper presents research on movements involved in the lives of international university students and their accompanying family members. Located in the framing of new empiricisms and new materialisms, a posthumanist approach is offered as a way to move beyond the limitations of a focus on the educational mobilities of individualised self-contained student subjects. The research this paper draws on engages a diffractive visual methodology involving interview encounters with women who each moved from Iran to Australia together with their partner and children. A materialist feminist approach enables the consideration of how a variety of entangled movements and animated affects shape the lives of international student families. The utility of this approach becomes the inspiration for thinking through the concept of ‘intra-active becoming in movement’. This brings a refreshed set of practices for designing higher education experiences for international students that resists the divisiveness of binary oppositions in Western thought.

Effects of the Intercultural Exchange on the Life of International Students in Wuhan (China)

As it is recognized that the number of the foreign students is increasingly becoming more and more important around the world, which needs to be regarded in the context of sociology and psychology, because some person has a difficulty to adapt themselves to the new place. Nowadays, China is considered to be one of the famous countries, which is expected by many students to continue their study, but most of these students have not the same ability to satisfy emotional hole due to the social status. So, in order to determine this problem, this study used some sociopsychological variables based on the plan of the Likert scale with 5 points which included the questionnaire to understand the effect of sociodemographic factors on the change of emotional character, and behavior of foreign students in Wuhan-China. Besides, 42 participants shared between the three universities of Wuhan have answered the questions, and the data gathered through this instrument will be statistically analyzed with the help of Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). As the result, this study proposed that with difference in age, in marital status, in duration to stay abroad, people cannot have the same manner to feel themselves in the new place. Therefore, for more contribution to the same issue a new research can be conducted by including interview and open-ending questions and focusing on the person of different ages in order to bounce out which group of age can be comfortable to study abroad.

Rethinking stories of transnational mothering in the context of international study

Women's migration has facilitated diverse understandings of both mothering and motherhood. Despite this, transnational mothering tends to be understood in narrowly defined terms, largely associated with economic necessity, with alternative motivations for women's migration and transnational mothering largely absent from existing literature. This research aims to contribute to literature about transnational mothering by drawing on research with mothers in the context of postgraduate international study to explore the different ways in which mothers reproduce, negotiate, contest and diversify narratives of ‘good mothering’. We also bring greater visibility to stories of transnational mothers and illuminate the other interests and aspirations that transnational mothers evoke with regards to their migration. We argue that rethinking stories of transnational mothering allows us to hear about and to value a diversity of mothers' lives, so these mothers do not have to inhabit the margins and periphery of stories of either motherhood or international student life.