This is a pre-print version of:
Lim, S. S. & Pham, B. (2015). Between being and belonging: digital connections and disjunctures of migrant students. In T. Skelton, N.
Worth & C. Dwyer. (Ed.) Geographies of Identities and Subjectivities. London: Springer. Forthcoming.
Between being and belonging: digital connections and disjunctures of migrant students
Sun Sun Lim & Becky Pham
Abstract
The market for international education is sizeable, with more students traversing borders
than ever before. Armed with skills, knowledge, and ambition, migrant students often venture to
their host countries with the intention to upgrade themselves and raise their qualifications so as to
improve their employment prospects and overall quality of life. Yet the growing tide of antiforeigner sentiment in many countries around the world severely undermines the hospitability of
host countries for migrant students. The challenge of adapting to a potentially hostile environment,
coupled with the difficulties of living independently for the first time, compound the sense of
alienation that can beset migrant students as they grapple with life in a foreign land.
Communication with family and friends who can help them through this process of adaptation, in
both home and host countries, is therefore crucial for enhancing migrant students’ sense of wellbeing. This chapter undertakes a systematic review of the research literature to understand the role
that technologically mediated communication plays in facilitating migrant students’ adaptation and
acculturation to their host countries in light of their particular circumstances. Specifically, it seeks to
identify which types of technologically mediated communication can be leveraged to enhance
migrant students’ intercultural communicative competence. It outlines how technologically
mediated communication channels feature in migrant students’ acculturation practices and explores
how technologically mediated communication can be optimised for acculturation strategies that
prevent cultural polarisation and inter-cultural conflict.
Key words: students, migrants, acculturation, discrimination, technologically mediated
communication
Introduction
Migrant students are one of the fastest growing groups of international migrants. Armed
with skills, knowledge, and ambition, migrant students often venture to their host countries with the
intention to upgrade themselves and raise their qualifications so as to improve their employment
prospects and overall quality of life. Yet the growing tide of anti-foreigner sentiment in many
countries around the world (see Fox, 2014; Marginson, 2014; Taylor & Muir, 2014; Watts, 2014 and
the expanding body of academic literature on anti-foreigner sentiment, including Zamora‐Kapoor,
Kovincic & Causey, 2013), severely undermine the hospitability of host countries for migrant
students. The challenge of adapting to a potentially hostile environment, coupled with the
difficulties of living independently for the first time, compound the sense of alienation that can beset
migrant students as they grapple with life in a foreign land. Communication with family and friends
who can help them through this process of adaptation, in both home and host countries, is therefore
crucial for enhancing migrant students’ sense of well-being. Indeed, by dint of their youth and
relatively high educational achievement as compared to low waged migrant workers for example,
migrant students tend to be adept at technology and well-versed in its manifold affordances. This
chapter undertakes a systematic review of the research literature to understand the role that
technologically mediated communication plays in facilitating migrant students’ adaptation and
acculturation to their host countries in light of their particular circumstances.
This is a pre-print version of:
Lim, S. S. & Pham, B. (2015). Between being and belonging: digital connections and disjunctures of migrant students. In T. Skelton, N.
Worth & C. Dwyer. (Ed.) Geographies of Identities and Subjectivities. London: Springer. Forthcoming.
First, we provide a more comprehensive picture of the migrant student of today, in light of
the lack of distinction between short-term exchange students and long-term foreign students in
previous literature despite the distinct characteristics of the two groups. Next, we delve into the
process of acculturation and integration of migrant students in host countries by reviewing a large
body of multidisciplinary research to identify their aspirations, adaptation strategies and challenges.
We then discuss the crucial roles that technologically mediated communication play in migrant
students’ intercultural communicative competence and acculturation processes as they move
between cultures and experience ambiguities in their own identities in both home and host
countries.
The migrant student of today
The term international students is usually used to refer to all students who are foreign to the
host institution’s country and this can include both short term exchange students and long term
foreign students. However, there are significant differences between these two groups. Exchange
students visit host institutions overseas to study for brief periods, ranging from several weeks to one
year, and their stints do not culminate in the conferment of an educational qualification by the host
institution. These overseas sojourns, characterised by their brevity, are therefore likely to take less
planning and preparation. While overseas, exchange students’ activities are more oriented towards
cultural exchange and exploration rather than necessarily on academic achievement, thus
translating into less pressure to study and a reduced need for long term cultural integration in the
host country. Exchange students also have few opportunities for employment or of extending their
stay in the host country beyond the period of their exchange programmes. Without any formal
educational qualifications conferred by the host countries’ institutions, exchange students’ longterm life trajectories are unlikely to be practically influenced by their exchange experience.
In contrast, foreign students are those who apply to study in host institutions in foreign
countries, with the intention of attaining formal educational qualifications. Consequently, they are
committed to the full course for several years including undergoing rigid academic assessment, and
they have to acquire a requisite amount of knowledge and training related to host countries’
languages, cultures and educational systems in advance. In most cases, the possession of language
skills is required for admission into foreign institutions to begin with. In some cases, foreign students
are personally motivated to learn the language of the host country when their decision to relocate
stems from a desire to be exposed to a new culture, and an attraction to the country’s lifestyle
(Eder, Smith & Pitts, 2010). The financial investment for foreign students is also considerably higher
than that of exchange students. Since tuition fees for overseas education can be high, especially in
the case of tertiary education, and foreign students typically pay more than domestic students
(Beine, Noël & Ragot, 2014), foreign students are often compelled to compete for scholarships, seek
financial support from their families or work hard to raise their own funding. Given that their
venture to a new country involves such high stakes, foreign students tend to be better prepared for
their arrival in their host countries than exchange students are. In light of this confluence of factors,
foreign students have been observed to set ambitious goals for themselves during their stay in host
countries compared to exchange students: they strive to quickly adapt to their new environment,
seek good academic qualifications and pursue employment opportunities. Notably, many foreign
students worldwide also seek long-term residence in their host countries to acquire more extensive
This is a pre-print version of:
Lim, S. S. & Pham, B. (2015). Between being and belonging: digital connections and disjunctures of migrant students. In T. Skelton, N.
Worth & C. Dwyer. (Ed.) Geographies of Identities and Subjectivities. London: Springer. Forthcoming.
overseas employment experience for improved economic prospects, often with a view towards
permanent emigration.
Undoubtedly, foreign and exchange students do share certain similarities. Both groups of
individuals leave their home countries to pursue an overseas education. While studying, they cannot
be permanent residents of their host countries (Morrison, Merrick, Higgs & Le Métais, 2005;
Spencer-Rodgers, 2001) but are granted student visas for the duration of their academic programme
(Andrade, 2006). The two groups of students thus differ fundamentally in terms of the durations of
their overseas sojourns, the amount of investment involved in the move, and their long-term life
goals and trajectories. While the term ‘international students’ has been more widely used in
previous literature to refer to all foreign students, we prefer to use the term ‘migrant students’ to
refer specifically to foreign students so as to highlight their migrant status, and to better distinguish
them from exchange students. That being said, prior research on exchange students is still able to
shed light on the foreign student’s experience and our review also includes such literature.
This chapter therefore defines ‘migrant students’ as highly mobile, educated and goal-driven
individuals whose experiences in their host countries extend well beyond their academic work, and
whose identities are co-constituted by the cultures of both home and host countries. Even as they
strive for permanent residency in their host countries, foreign students continue to connect with
their home countries. Despite their diverse backgrounds, hailing as they do from different countries
around the globe, migrant students and exchange students are a fairly homogenous group
compared to other migrant groups because they are typically young and educated.
Acculturation and integration of migrant students
Aspirations and expectations
While an overseas education can certainly be a life-changing experience, migrant students
are in a privileged, yet unenviable position. Typically, they pursue academic opportunities in
countries that are more developed than their own and thus benefit from exposure to a more
advanced education system and a higher quality of instruction. The qualifications they attain in the
process would enable them to seek more attractive job opportunities that may previously have been
inaccessible if they had remained at home. This is especially true of international students who enrol
in institutions in the US, where the strong reputations of American universities hold considerable
allure (Lee, 2007). The same can increasingly be said of universities outside of the US, such as those
in Asia and Europe, which are highly ranked internationally and vest their graduates with a strong
cachet. On top of these coveted educational qualifications, the host country can also offer migrant
students more varied and promising employment options than their home countries do. Regardless
of whether migrant students choose to remain in the host country or to return home, their overseas
stints should in principle help them to boost their competitive edge and serve as a springboard to
more exciting job opportunities.
However, even while the migrant students’ lot seems ripe with promise, their journey is not
without adversity. Taking into account the typical age at which migrant students venture overseas,
these young people are also likely to still be in the throes of identity experimentation and formation.
In such circumstances, the experience of being uprooted and transplanted to a strange environment
may be alienating and unsettling. Furthermore, in light of the considerable family investments
This is a pre-print version of:
Lim, S. S. & Pham, B. (2015). Between being and belonging: digital connections and disjunctures of migrant students. In T. Skelton, N.
Worth & C. Dwyer. (Ed.) Geographies of Identities and Subjectivities. London: Springer. Forthcoming.
poured into their educational endeavours overseas, migrant students bear the burden of parental
expectations (Li, Findlay, Jowett & Skeldon, 1996; Mazzarol & Soutar, 2002). Notably however, there
is evidence to show that migrant students who seek a foreign education of their own accord, rather
than doing so at the behest of family, are most likely to successfully adjust to the overseas
environment (Chirkov, Safdar, de Guzman & Playford, 2007). Even so, there is considerable pressure
on migrant students to make the most of this hard-earned opportunity, further heightened by the
difficulties they face in coping with an unfamiliar education system (Smith & Khawaja, 2011). For
example, one study of African and Western students in China found that academic difficulties such
as attaining lower grades, missing too many classes and working with unfamiliar peoples to be the
most common stressors for these international students (Hashim & Yang, 2003). Academic
challenges aside, the task of navigating a foreign country with a different language, culture and value
system can also be monumental for someone who has just made it through adolescence and is
transitioning into early adulthood (Sherry, Thomas & Chui, 2010). As one study of Taiwanese
students in the US found, those who had lower perceived English fluency and lower perceived social
support were more likely to experience depression (Dao, Lee & Chang, 2007). But even facility in the
language of the host country was no assurance of a seamless entry into the host country considering
how the initial settling in process is generally a difficult period of transition. For instance, yet another
study of international students in the US reported sharp declines in psychological well-being during
the first three months of their stays, even for international students with considerable English
language skills (Cemalcilar & Falbo, 2008). Furthermore, the cultural backgrounds of the students
can also have a bearing on their ability to cope with the acculturative stress they experience.
According to Smith and Khawaja (2011), many studies have found that Asian international students
tend to suffer more acculturative stress than European international students. The authors posit that
Asian students may tend to keep their negative emotions to themselves rather than seek external
help due to Asian cultures’ emphasis on emotional control and the perception that needing help
signals one’s failure to handle their own emotions (Smith & Khawaja 2011).
And yet, unlike low wage migrants who are fundamentally transient workers and less likely
to permanently settle in the host country, migrant students often seek to sink roots overseas after
completing their studies. Among their motivations is a desire to explore career-enhancing
opportunities (Eder et al., 2010) and ultimately for many, long-term residency or citizenship (see for
example Mazzarol & Soutar, 2002 on the factors motivating international students from China, India,
Indonesia and Taiwan to study abroad). According to Baas (2014), study-abroad destinations that
offer clear pathways for international students to stay on after graduation such as Australia, Canada,
Malaysia and New Zealand, have in fact seen a substantial increase in international student
enrolment numbers in recent years. The desire to sink roots overseas could be so strong that the
ultimate goal of securing permanent residency overshadows international students’ preferred
choices of courses and universities. Indeed, they are prepared to take courses they are not
interested in and even enrol in low-quality institutions just so that they have a valid reason to stay
on in the host country (Baas, 2006). This intention to permanently relocate to the host country
heightens the pressure for migrant students to successfully adapt by understanding the country’s
culture and language, as well as to blend in and be accepted. However, achieving acceptance by the
host community is by no means a cut-and-dried affair, particularly as migrant students may be
viewed as interlopers who threaten the interests of the locals, presenting competition for jobs,
This is a pre-print version of:
Lim, S. S. & Pham, B. (2015). Between being and belonging: digital connections and disjunctures of migrant students. In T. Skelton, N.
Worth & C. Dwyer. (Ed.) Geographies of Identities and Subjectivities. London: Springer. Forthcoming.
housing and other social benefits (Li et al, 1996). It is these very contradictions that have impelled
extensive research on the migrant student’s situation.
Primarily, one dominant research node focuses on adaptation by migrant students to their
new milieu (see Smith & Khawaja, 2011). Acculturating to the host community is the foremost
challenge that migrant students encounter and it is a multi-faceted process of “cultural and
psychological changes that involve various forms of mutual accommodation, leading to some longerterm psychological and sociocultural adaptations between both groups” (Berry, 2005, p. 699). Intercultural contact between immigrants and locals must occur for acculturation to take place, involving
learning one another’s language, and familiarising oneself with one another’s culture through social
interaction. However, such exchanges may result in misunderstandings and conflicts that lead to
‘acculturative stress’ (Berry, 2005, p. 700). The “acculturation strategies” (Berry, 2005, p. 700) that
are practised differ among individuals and groups depending on the objectives they wish to achieve,
ultimately translating into varying degrees and forms of successful adaptation. Another critical factor
to take into account is of course the overarching attitude of the host country towards immigrants.
While some societies are embracing of cultural diversity, instituting policies that respect cultural
differences while promoting inter-ethnic engagement, others seek to minimise differences through
assimilating immigrants. Yet other societies actively segregate new immigrant groups and diminish
their status through policies that actively subordinate them to the majority.
Acculturation strategies
On an individual level, as migrants adapt to their newly adopted environments, acculturation
toward the home culture and toward the host culture occurs (Berry, Kim, Minde, & Mok, 1987).
Among the many adaptation frameworks that have been developed over time (see Smith &
Khawaja, 2011), Berry et al.’s four mode acculturation model posits that there are four acculturation
strategies—integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization. Integration refers to the state
where individuals conform to both home and host cultures. Assimilation occurs when individuals
imbibe the host culture but eschew their home culture. Separation is used to describe the strategy
of retaining the home culture but not absorbing the host culture. The last strategy, marginalization,
describes the individual’s rejection of both home and host cultures. Prior research indicates that of
the four strategies, integration has the greatest positive impact on migrants’ psychological wellbeing because it allows migrants to behave in accordance with the norms of both home and host
countries, and to reconcile dissonances between the two (Kim, 2007). The final results of this
adaptation process could either be psychological or sociocultural – psychological adaptation means
well-being and self-esteem, while sociocultural adaptation refers to the effectiveness of individuals
in interacting with the new intercultural environment (Smith & Khawaja, 2011; Ward, Bochner &
Furnham, 2001).
For international students in general, their initial experiences of acculturation will largely
take place in the school environment which is overlaid with its own traits, norms and practices.
Extant literature provides many insights into the acculturation processes of exchange students,
which while not entirely applicable to migrant students given their different long-term goals and
which has not taken into consideration the important roles of technologically mediated
communication, can still help illuminate the migrant student experience (see Smith & Khawaja,
2011). The growth in global international student numbers is not surprising in light of emerging
trends in higher education. Many universities worldwide espouse cultural diversity as an important
This is a pre-print version of:
Lim, S. S. & Pham, B. (2015). Between being and belonging: digital connections and disjunctures of migrant students. In T. Skelton, N.
Worth & C. Dwyer. (Ed.) Geographies of Identities and Subjectivities. London: Springer. Forthcoming.
component of a well-rounded educational experience, and seek to have a student body that
comprises local and international students. Indeed, international rankings of universities often
include student and faculty diversity as an indicator of quality. Such diversity is known as the
‘international outlook’ criterion by The Times Higher Education World University Rankings which
includes a university’s ability to attract students from all over the world, its ratio of international to
domestic staff, and its academic staff’s level of collaboration with international colleagues (Times
Higher Education, n.d.). Similarly, The QS World University Rankings incorporate ranking indicators
such as ‘international faculty/students’, ‘inbound/outbound exchange students’ in its assessment
every year (QS Intelligence Unit, n.d.).
Exclusion and discrimination
Nonetheless, even while exposure to cultural diversity is a purported advantage for
students, its benefits are neither guaranteed nor clear cut, and migrant students often bear the
brunt of exclusion and discrimination in their host countries (Baas, 2014; Leask & Carroll, 2011;
Poyrazli & Grahame, 2007). International students may find themselves in situations where local
sales clerks assume they do not understand the local language and give them poor customer service,
or local people may call them names and treat them like potential terrorists if they look Middle
Eastern (Poyrazli & Grahame, 2007). More egregiously, international students may encounter verbal
confrontations, direct mistreatment (Lee & Rice, 2007) or violent attacks and negative media
representations (Baas, 2014) because of their international background. The experiences of Indian
migrant students in Australia offer compelling insights into the marginalisation that international
students are vulnerable to. According to a recent study by Baas (2014), because more low-quality,
low-cost colleges or ‘PR (permanent residency) factories’ sprang up to cater to international
students’ desire to migrate, there was a significant surge in the number of Indian students in
Australia between 2006 and 2009. A sizeable proportion of these students were from smaller towns
in India and coming from predominantly lower middle-class families that had scrimped and saved for
their overseas education, these students were willing to take up jobs in fast-food restaurants,
supermarkets, petrol stations or to serve as drivers, thereby fuelling locals’ perception that new
entrants were essentially unskilled labourers. Given their disempowered state, they often
encountered problems with housing, language, illegal employment and poor qualifications, thus
attracting negative media attention. At the same time, Indian students were also involved in racially
motivated attacks which the local media reported using conflicting frames. While initially portrayed
as ‘victims’ of these violent racist attacks, media representations of Indian students gradually
became problematic, to the point that they were depicted as having only themselves to blame for
their difficulties, thus reinforcing negative stereotypes of these students in the eyes of the local
community. As the experiences of these Indian migrant students show, prejudices towards migrant
students can be deep-seated and become easily inflamed.
The lack of facility or fluency in the language of the host country is another distinct
impediment to greater integration with the local community, resulting in “gaps in communication
effectiveness” and a deficit of “intercultural communicative competence” (Lewthwaite, 1996, p.
182). Indeed, other studies further note that students from cultural or linguistic minorities are often
negatively perceived as outsiders who lack the interest and/or ability to engage with the dominant
majority. As well, international students encounter discriminatory and racist treatment from other
students, and even from professors and other members of the community (Hanassab, 2006; Lee &
This is a pre-print version of:
Lim, S. S. & Pham, B. (2015). Between being and belonging: digital connections and disjunctures of migrant students. In T. Skelton, N.
Worth & C. Dwyer. (Ed.) Geographies of Identities and Subjectivities. London: Springer. Forthcoming.
Rice, 2007; Poyrazli & Grahame, 2007). In such circumstances, even when cross-cultural group work
is required in the classroom, the adverse stereotypes that local students have of international
students impede genuine and meaningful interactions. International students’ inputs may be taken
lightly or dismissed by their local project mates, while their foreign accents may elicit derisory
responses from other students (Poyrazli & Grahame, 2007; Sherry et al., 2010). Such negative
encounters or racially stereotypical media presentations can certainly result in international
students experiencing a sense of disjuncture from their immediate environment, translating possibly
into acculturative stress (Yeh & Inose, 2003), depression and low self-esteem (Smith & Khawaja,
2011). Felicitously however, some other studies have found that over time, international students do
eventually adapt to the host culture, thus developing the ‘intercultural competence’ to reconcile
worldviews and practices that conflict with their own (Pritchard & Skinner, 2002). At the same time
though, other studies submit that international students themselves contribute consciously or
unwittingly to their own exclusion. One study found that in orientation programmes, migrant
students chose to fraternise and collaborate with co-nationals (Brown, 2009). Another study of
international Asian students in South Korea revealed that these students were “intensely goal
oriented” (Kim, Yun & Yoon, 2009, p. 160) about attaining their academic degrees and could not
afford the time or effort to socialise and build close relationships with local students, although they
acknowledged the benefits of doing so. Such behaviour translated in some cases into the creation of
'cultural silos' where study and work alliances closely parallel the students’ nationalities (Maundeni,
2001). In other cases, international students’ origins could also play a role. Poyrazli and Lopez (2007)
found that being international students from Europe predicted lower levels of perceived
discrimination than being international students from other parts of the world.
In this regard, several questions that communication scholars can helpfully address with
regard to migrant students is: Which forms of technologically mediated communication can be
leveraged to enhance migrant students’ intercultural communicative competence? How do
technologically mediated communication channels feature in migrant students’ acculturation
practices? Can technologically mediated communication be optimised for acculturation strategies
that prevent cultural polarisation and inter-cultural conflict?
Mediated communication in migration
Scholars of media and intercultural communication, as well as from disciplines such as
psychology, geography and sociology, have conducted extensive research on migrants’ use of
technologically mediated communication to maintain ties with family and friends back home, and/or
to foster links with people in their newly adopted homes and to build up their economic and social
capital (see Lim, Pham & Cheong (2015) for a comprehensive review). Research that focuses
specifically on migrant students’ use of mediated communication is fairly extensive, although many
issues still remain unexplored.
Prior research on international students’ adjustment to their host countries shows that as
these students leave the comforts of home and adapt to their new abodes with their identity
formation still in progress, it is their left-behind family and friends who provide them with a sense of
belonging and emotional anchoring (Cemalcilar, Falbo & Stapleton, 2005; Constantine, Kindaichi,
Okazaki, Gainor & Baden, 2005; Kim et al, 2009; Lin, Peng, Kim, Kim & LaRose, 2012; Sandel, 2014).
Through the mutual sharing of emotions and updates on everyday details, such communication can
This is a pre-print version of:
Lim, S. S. & Pham, B. (2015). Between being and belonging: digital connections and disjunctures of migrant students. In T. Skelton, N.
Worth & C. Dwyer. (Ed.) Geographies of Identities and Subjectivities. London: Springer. Forthcoming.
positively affect the overall well-being of international students. To this end, long-distance
communication with left-behind networks has been revolutionised by different media platforms and
devices that provide a rich variety of affordances that can be tapped for maintaining ties.
Specifically, mobile phone calls to left-behind families and/or friends are popular among
international students (Cemalcilar et al., 2005; Constantine et al., 2005; Hjorth, 2007; Kline & Liu,
2005), proving more advantageous than online communications despite their higher costs because
Internet access may not be not widespread in their home countries, or is too daunting for parents
who lack the requisite technological competencies (Cemalcilar et al., 2005). Besides mobile
communication, international students also use Internet-based platforms to share news and updates
with left-behind families and/or friends using free and unlimited services (Cemalcilar et al., 2005;
Lim & Pham, 2014) such as SNSs like Cyworld minihompy (Hjorth, 2007; Lim & Meier, 2012),
Facebook (Lee, Kim, Lee & Kim, 2012; Lin et al., 2012) and Renren (Li & Chen, 2014; Sandel, 2014),
instant messaging (Kim et al., 2009; Kline & Liu, 2005; Lim & Meier, 2012), emails (Kim et al., 2009;
Kline & Liu, 2005) and web meetings (Kline & Liu, 2005; Sandel, 2014). Besides left-behind families
and friends, another thread that connects international students to their home countries is their
continual online consumption of home countries’ news, radio programmes and other forms of
entertainment (Cemalcilar et al., 2005; Kim et al., 2009; Sandel, 2014; Sin & Kim, 2013). International
students have been found to actively surf the Internet for diverse content from both host and home
countries, thus creating for themselves a transcultural, hybridised online cultural space in which they
can learn about the world from multiple angles (Kim et al., 2009). In this way, technologically
mediated communication with home countries can have a positive impact on international students’
adaptation to their host countries, while also offering channels for greater identification with their
home cultures (Cemalcilar et al., 2005).
In addition, being separated from their home countries implies that international students
may lose the social status and network of connections that they had built up back home, neither of
which they have yet to establish in their new destinations (Al-Sharideh & Goe, 1998; Burkholder,
2010; Smith & Khawaja, 2011). As a result, international students inevitably have to interact with
people in their host countries to cope with the new environment and fulfil their personal needs.
They are also inclined to make their first connections with co-nationals/co-culturals due to the
shared nationalities or cultural backgrounds between them (Al Sharideh & Goe, 1998), particularly if
there is a large number of co-nationals in the same area (Sherry et al., 2010). Notably, a recent
study also revealed that besides the reputational strengths of universities and the costs of living, the
presence of co-national networks in the host countries also heavily influences international students’
decision to move there (Beine et al., 2014). More specifically, international students’ interactions
with co-nationals/co-culturals in ethnic communities at school have been shown to significantly help
them emotionally and academically during the adaptation process, as in the case of international
students in the US (Al-Sharideh & Goe, 1998; Lin, 2007; Lin et al., 2012), international students in
Britain (Brown, 2009), Turkish international students in the US (Burkholder, 2010), and Vietnamese
international students in France (Brisset, Safdar, Lewis & Sabatier, 2010). Specifically, Cao and Zhang
(2012) found that Chinese international students in New Zealand used SNSs such as QQ to keep in
touch, discuss assignments and share study tips among themselves. Similarly, Kim et al. (2009)
discovered that Asian international students in Korea found co-national friends in online
communities and subsequently maintained these relationships offline. Apart from academic and
emotional help, Lin (2007) further found that a Chinese student organization in the US provided
This is a pre-print version of:
Lim, S. S. & Pham, B. (2015). Between being and belonging: digital connections and disjunctures of migrant students. In T. Skelton, N.
Worth & C. Dwyer. (Ed.) Geographies of Identities and Subjectivities. London: Springer. Forthcoming.
valuable information through its website’s Frequently Asked Questions and Answers for the Chinese
Newcomers (FAQ) that significantly scaffolded co-national members’ adjustment process. This FAQ
was aimed at reducing culture shock for Chinese international students by providing detailed
information on airports and plane tickets, housing problems, weather conditions and living
expenses. Unlike the school’s official advisories, this FAQ featured the viewpoints of senior Chinese
students who were already enrolled, and thus offered intimate and insightful first-person accounts
that the prospective students could better relate to (Lin, 2007). In sum, international students’
communication with their co-nationals/co-culturals can help to alleviate homesickness, create a
sense of home, and supply useful advice and information for daily life problems, thus paving the way
for their adaptation to unfamiliar host cultures (Brown, 2009). In other words, such evidence shows
that ‘identification to one’s original culture rather than abandonment of one’s original culture is
desirable for acculturating individuals and groups’ (Brisset et al., 2010, p. 423).
Apart from their social circles of co-nationals/co-culturals, some international students also
make active efforts to befriend local people. While earlier research evinced that consuming host
countries’ mass media could help with acculturation, more recent literature on international
students shows that their adaptation and social capital building rely much more on interpersonal
communication channels. This is because in the current media climate, young students rely much
less on traditional television or newspapers for information or entertainment (Park, Song & Lee,
2014). Instead, they use the Internet and Facebook to learn about online groups and events
organised by their universities and make more local acquaintances (Cao & Zhang, 2012), or use SNSs
to ask local friends about useful information and resources (Kim et al., 2009; Li & Chen, 2014; Phua &
Jin, 2011). These interactions with local people have been found to increase resilience and prevent
depression/stress for international students (Cheung & Yue, 2013; Kline & Liu, 2005), or provide
them with higher levels of satisfaction and contentment compared with students who tend to
fraternise more with co-nationals (Hendrickson, Rosen & Aune, 2011). Since international students
are in between the cultures of both their home and host countries, they tend to also use SNSs from
both sources. A recent study of East Asian college students in the US found that students who used
only Facebook experience less acculturative stress and a greater sense of psychological well-being
compared to groups that used both Facebook and ethnic social networks, suggesting that host
country media use facilitates acculturation (Park et al., 2014). However, communication with local
people may be at odds with international students’ connections to their co-nationals/co-culturals or
their adaptation to host country environments. Burkholder (2010) found that Turkish international
students actively interacted with local students in the US to improve their English and integrate into
American culture, but ended up with less time for other Turkish friends - a situation which
occasionally led to experiences of loneliness. As well, Brown’s (2008) study showed that interacting
with co-nationals too frequently caused international students to feel that they had not left their
home countries at all. Yet their efforts to break away from co-nationals so as to assimilate more into
host country cultures might lead to criticism or dilemmas if they did not wish to be separated from
either co-national or local friends. In the same vein, Al-Sharideh and Goe (1998) explained that
international students with links to co-culturals are wedged uncomfortably between the two cultural
contexts. In order to effectively balance the two, they suggested that an international student’s
personal networks of close co-culturals should not be larger than 32 people so that they have
enough time and energy to learn about new host country cultures (Al-Sharideh & Goe, 1998).
This is a pre-print version of:
Lim, S. S. & Pham, B. (2015). Between being and belonging: digital connections and disjunctures of migrant students. In T. Skelton, N.
Worth & C. Dwyer. (Ed.) Geographies of Identities and Subjectivities. London: Springer. Forthcoming.
Above all though, migrant students’ lifestyles and use of mediated communication platforms
for social interaction are still influenced by their overarching life goals. Notably, international
students have been found to prioritise their academic studies in their host countries and to study
harder than local students (Burkholder, 2010; Kim et al., 2009). Consequently, this academic focus
deprives them of international student experiences which include socialising with other conationals/co-culturals or locals (Burkholder, 2010). Accordingly, their Internet use would be
mobilised for academic purposes rather than social ones. For example, one study found that instead
of using the Internet to befriend more people, international students in Korea use the Internet
primarily for academic pursuits, such as to research or complete their assignments (Kim et al., 2009).
As the above-mentioned body of literature shows, migrant students have the capacity to
appropriate various communication platforms for everyday interactions. While such mediated
communication evidently empowers migrant students to acculturate to their host countries, it also
reflects how challenging and demanding a migrant student’s life can be, and the extent to which
migrant students have to make strategic efforts in choosing the right means of communication for
different social circles.
Vera’s experience
Vera is a 21 year-old student from Medan, Indonesia. Bright and ambitious, Vera won a full scholarship to
study at a prestigious university in Singapore at the age of 18, with strong support from her left-behind family.
Yet, her experience as a migrant student in Singapore was not without its challenges. Far removed from her
networks of friends and familiar environment in Indonesia, Vera had to make new friends all over again and to
quickly adjust to the demanding education system in Singapore, a process in which various ICT-facilitated
communication channels play a crucial role. Before she came to Singapore, Vera sought other Indonesian
friends in Singapore with the help of Facebook and emails. She continued to keep contact and strengthen her
friendship with these co-national friends both offline and online until now. At the same time, Vera actively
appropriated other online-based communication channels to keep continual ties with her family and friends
back home, which provided her with a sense of belonging and a comforting space for her to escape especially
when her overseas stint became too daunting. Vera kept updated with news from her friends in Indonesia
through the WhatsApp group function, which put Vera back to her comfort zone and helped relieved stress
from coping with her ‘foreigner’ status in Singapore. Despite her busy schedule, Vera and her left-behind
parents always made sure they could video-call each other through Skype at least once every fortnight, and
they could also send short text messages and photos through WhatsApp at their own convenience. This twoway communication allowed Vera and her parents to keep track of both sides’ well-being with efficient
transmission of images, voice and information at low costs, while Vera could seek emotional support and
advice from her parents for her everyday problems. In particular, some local students had negative stereotypes
about Indonesian students, such as Indonesian students having poor English language, presentation and
report-writing skills. This caused Vera to feel excluded sometimes, but she gradually learned to take charge
during group project meetings and proved to her classmates that should could be a helpful teammate.
Conclusion
Ultimately, migrant students inhabit a liminal space. When they embark on an overseas
education, they are venturing into unchartered terrain, physically, emotionally, intellectually and
ideologically. While they may yet fully understand who they are and where they come from, they
will have to contend with alternative and possibly conflicting perspectives of their new abode which
may trigger a sense of confusion and disjuncture. They also have to reconcile the aspirations they
have for themselves, with the expectations that others have of them. They may not feel entirely
welcome in their host countries, but may also begin to develop feelings of estrangement from their
home countries. Strong familial and social networks can serve as a psychological bulwark against
This is a pre-print version of:
Lim, S. S. & Pham, B. (2015). Between being and belonging: digital connections and disjunctures of migrant students. In T. Skelton, N.
Worth & C. Dwyer. (Ed.) Geographies of Identities and Subjectivities. London: Springer. Forthcoming.
these feelings of ambivalence. Technologically mediated mobile and online communication is a
critical apparatus for helping to foster and sustain these social ties, enabling a constant link between
migrant students and their support networks. However, technologically mediated communication is
by no means a perfect salve for the problems of adjustment and acculturation that migrant students
may encounter. Migrant students need to strike a strategic balance between exploiting mediated
communication links for holding on to their home identities, while affording room for personal
growth and self-discovery as they explore their host cultures. An over-immersion in either
environment may not contribute to successful acculturation. To the best of our knowledge, there
has been no systematic review of whether student orientation programmes for migrant students are
designed in cognisance of such factors, and whether these young people are fully advised of the
implications that their technologically mediated communications can have for their overall wellbeing during their stints overseas. Considering how commonplace and taken for granted mobile and
Internet communications are (Ling, 2012), the issue of migrant students using technologically
mediated communications strategically and judiciously may well be overlooked. Further efforts must
be made by academic researchers to better understand the unique circumstances of migrant
students so that their orientation and mentorship programmes can be enhanced, and their
acculturation efforts be robustly supported.
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