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Why do all the Chinese students sit together?

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We provide research-based, innovative solutions for assessing, predicting, and improving cultural intelligence (CQ).

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Yung-Hwa Anna Chow, Global Engagement Commission Chair
The economic crisis and federal budget cuts have forced many colleges and universities to increase their international student enrollment. However, this shift in enrollment practice has caused many domestic students to protest that tax dollars are being unfairly spent on educating foreign and out of state students. In fact, in 2011 alone, international students contributed $21.8 billion dollars to the U.S. economy, and roughly 70% of all international students' primary funding comes from sources outside of the U.S. (Open Doors 2012a, Open Doors 2012b). Not surprisingly, international students are actively recruited to North American universities and colleges, not only because they generate revenue in tough economic times, but because they increase diversity and cultural exposure for our domestic students.

Inaccurate assumptions, coupled with the steady increase of international enrollment all over the U.S., have resulted in a number of racial incidents targeting international students. "Students at Ohio State University Tweet comments like 'The [I]ndian next [to] me [at] the gym smells like a curry covered butt hole' and 'Every Asian that walks past us in the oval wants to eat our dog.' A column in the student newspaper at Kansas State University argued that American tax dollars shouldn't be spent to educate Afghan, Chinese, Iranian, Iraqi or Turkish students 'who could, in the near future, become the enemy'" (Redden, 2012).

A recent study by Shideh Hanassah at UCLA, in which she surveyed 640 international students, found that discrimination also extends to these students' interactions with professors, university staff, classmates, potential employers, and the larger community. Students' examples of discriminatory acts include comments like: "Latinos cannot be logical or scientific. [The professor] had little regards for different academic trainings, cultures, and ways of thinking;" "A White guy (staff) was laughing at my name and making fun of it in public;" "I get very frustrated if a professor ignores me because my English is not as good compared to a native speaker...such times, I feel I'm stupid" (Hanassah, 2006).

University administrations across the country have proposed that we need to create safe and welcoming environments by encouraging cross-cultural interactions between domestic and international students. Programs such as "Campus Cousins, Friendship Families, and Global Greek" (Redden, 2013) pair international students with domestic students or recent study abroad returnees to promote one-on-one interaction. Other campuses encourage campus integration of international students by offering credited courses that act as semester-long orientations. These courses might target transitional issues (such as housing and transportation), academic issues (such as plagiarism), and educating students about university resources. In addition to interactions with American students, international programs might also offer opportunities to build friendship amongst international students from various countries. Research has shown that relationships with other international students "play a critical role in staving off depression, improving academic performance, and increasing student satisfaction with their college experience" (Glass & Braskamp, 2012).

However, to complicate this issue we must recognize that international students might also bring with them a set of stereotypes that often preclude them from interacting with certain groups on campus. When asked if a Korean international student would date someone who is African American, she responded, "No, they will hurt me because they are big and I don't like their curly hair and big lips, it's not my style" (Ritter, 2012). Due to popular culture, stereotypes and racist ideologies have been spread worldwide. In Japan, Blacks are considered "backward" and "good singers," and "Sambo"-like images are regularly consumed (Greenwald, 2001). In China, people with "darker skin" including Filipinos, Southeast Asians, Latinos, and Blacks, are considered "inferior" (Shanghai Star, 2003). Bert Berry, Director of International Services at Webster University, also points out that what's most disturbing is "the perception that the dominant white culture is inherently 'right.' Too often [the international] students are only interested in associating with people from their home country and U.S. whites. They shun Blacks, Hispanics, and all other minority groups" (Althen, 2009).

What further exacerbates this issue is that some university campuses exempt international students from American history requirements and many do not require diversity courses (Ritter, 2012). International students' perception of race affects who they choose to interact with and the overall quality of their college experience. This in turn affects campus climate as a whole. To combat stereotypes harbored by international students, Gary Althen (2009) argues that we must educate international students about race. He encourages international student offices to partner with multicultural affairs offices to create opportunities to educate students about race relations in the U.S. ESL teachers at Central Connecticut State University use movies and short essays to illustrate and facilitate discussions about race. Gonzaga University introduces race relations through African American history during ESL orientation. University of Michigan offers credited courses and dialogue groups for international and domestic students on a range of topics including race, ethnicity, multiracial identity, and gender issues. Jennifer Yim, the director of the Global Scholars Pilot Program, says "the goal of these dialogues is to bring the two student groups together in a space for understanding one another" (Althen, 2009).

As academic advisors, we can also encourage our domestic and international students to enroll in diversity courses, such as Ethnic Studies courses, where students can learn about issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Students need to be able to understand cultural differences and systems of inequality within the U.S. and also in their home countries. These courses should teach students how to critically analyze the ways in which race and privilege are communicated to us globally and we internalize these ideologies. Perhaps the most important skill that we should promote in the discussion about race and racism is the ability to critically analyze oneself.

We should recognize that having international students on our campus is a unique privilege. They bring cultural diversity and perspectives from which we can all benefit. But the issue of racism definitely reaches further than just misunderstandings between domestic and international students. It's something we need to actively address so that we can eventually benefit from stimulating cross-cultural interactions between domestic and international students.
References
Yung-Hwa Anna Chow
General Studies and Advising Center
Washington State University
ychow@wsu.edu

Althen, G. (2009, May and June). Educating international students about 'race.' International Educator, 88-93.

Glass, C. & Braskamp, L. (2012) Essay on how colleges should respond to racism against international students. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/10/26/essay-how-colleges-should-respond-racism-against-international-students

Greenwald, J. (2001, June 24) Japan prejudice and black sambo. Times Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,149882,00.html

Hanassah, S. (2006) Diversity, international students, and perceived discrimination: Implications for educators and counselors. Journal of Studies in International Education, 10, 157-172.

Open Doors 2012a. (2012) Economic Impact of International Students. Retrieved from http://www.iie.org/Research-and-Publications/Open-Doors/Data/Special-Reports/Economic-Impact-of-International-Students

Open Doors 2012b. (2012) Fast Facts Open Doors 2012. Retrieved from http://www.iie.org/Research-and-Publications/Open-Doors

Redden, E. (2012) Tensions simmer between American and international students. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/10/16/tensions-simmer-between-american-and-international-students

Redden, E. (2013) International educators consider the challenges in integrating students from abroad. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/03/04/international-educators-consider-challenges-integrating-students-abroad

Ritter, Z. (2012) Essay on dealing with racist ideas of international students. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/10/26/essay-deadling-racist-ideas-international-students

Shanghai Star. (2003) Racism in China. Retrieved from http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2003/0417/cu18-1.html

Cite this article using APA style as: Chow, Y. (2013, June). Race, racism, and international students in the United State. Academic Advising Today, 36(2). Retrieved from [insert url here]

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Race, Racism, and International Students in the UnitedStates

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Yung-Hwa Anna Chow , Global Engagement Commission Chair The economic crisis and federal budget cuts have forced many colleges and universities to increase their international student enrollment. However, this shift in enrollment practice has caused many domestic students to protest that tax dollars are being unfairly spent on educating foreign and out of state students.

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Yesterday we learned that American students like having international students on campus. Only 10% of the American students who took our anonymous survey (a survey designed to find out what Americans really think about their international classmates) told us that they wouldn't want more international students at their school.
" Read part 1 of this series, in which we explore what Americans had to say about international students

But what we didn't discuss yesterday is that this positive attitude towards international students isn't necessarily translating into friendships.

Although 85% of American students who took our survey reported having at least one international friend, only about 50% said they have more than two international friends.

The international students in our survey had a slightly different experience. 75% said they have more than two American friends. But 10% told us they have no American friends at all.

And that may be an optimistic estimate. A recent study by Baruch College professor Elisabeth Gareis found that more than one in three international students have no close American friends.
Why the separation?
Some American students in our survey acknowledged they don't do as much as they could to get to know international students.

"When I was a student I didn't make an effort to get to know international students because they weren't in my classes or in any of the organizations I was in," said a graduate from the University of California, Berkeley.

Randy from the University of Kansas explained, "I am a natural introvert, which may have made communication between myself and other international students even more difficult."
Whose Move: American students discuss friendships with international students

And several international students said that they feel more comfortable hanging out with other international students than with Americans.

"Most of the international students in my social environment are from Asian countries and thus they are brought up in a similar culture to me and I find it easier to communicate with them," said one international student at Oberlin College, adding that "we are used to live our lives in a more similar way compared to Americans."
The plot thickens
But here's something interesting - for the most part, each group told us they are the ones trying to make friends, and it's the other group that's not doing enough.

80% of the Americans in our survey said either that they make an effort to get to know international students or that making friends with international students doesn't require any special effort.

Fewer than half of their international classmates agreed.

"When they're in their own country and there's a minority outsider who they'll have to put particular effort into getting to know, I think most of them just don't bother," said one international student at Oberlin College.

Tara from the University of Southern California said her American classmates have "no interest to know how [international] students struggle to live here."

Americans, on the other hand, complained that international students keep to themselves and make it hard to reach out.

"At my school, international students stick together," said Laura at the University of Central Oklahoma. "There's always a group of two or more in my classes and they rarely try to talk to us, so we sort of just leave them alone. It's like they don't want to make friends with us."

Kristin from Southern Illinois University said that "getting to know international students can be difficult - while international students are in the same classes as American students, the international students have a tendency to group together."

"As someone who has studied abroad, I understand this tendency," she added, "but it can still make breaking into their group of friends slightly daunting."
" See all comments from American students
This video of a conversation between our blogger Thuy, from Vietnam, and American classmate Alex illustrates the tension over which side needs to put in more effort:
Answering the burning question
The obvious question is, if Americans and international students both think the other group isn't putting in their fair share of the effort, who's right?

I'm not sure we can answer that, but our survey turned up one illuminating result.

Among the 80% of Americans who told us they try to get to know international students, a whopping 42% said that making friends with foreign students doesn't require any special effort.

International students didn't exactly agree that extra effort isn't required - only 19% of them had the same response.

In fact, international students seemed much more aware of the barriers created by cultural differences than their American counterparts. Many international students wrote comments about overcoming (or failing to overcome) specific differences between American and international students.

They are "more about self and less about give and take" said one international student of American students. "[We] aren't open and outgoing like them," said another.
" More about the cultural differences international students notice most

Americans, by contrast, often said that they make friends from among the people they encounter during their day, whoever they might be.

"They are just like other students to me," said one Oberlin College student. "I had never really thought of them as a separate category than everyone else. They blend in so well."

"I get to know people who are around me, regardless of whether they are national or international," added a Princeton University student.

For Americans, perhaps, an international student is just another type of student in a sea of types of students.

So the correct question may be not who needs to put in more effort to relate to one another, but rather, how to reconcile these two views of how much effort is actually required.

Or we could all just take the zen approach of Vikram from the University of Chicago.

"Some people like making international students their friends, some don't. Simple," he said.

"Some might want to know international students to know more about different cultures, while some are content being ignorant. That's fine, though. Everyone should be free to choose his/her own way in living life."

Read the rest of this series:
Part 1: The Truth - Americans Reveal What They Really Think of International Students
Part 3: Americans are Self-Centered but Friendly
Raw comments: 60+ Opinions from American Students About Their International Classmates

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Why Aren't Americans and International Students Becoming Friends?

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Yesterday we learned that American students like having international students on campus. Only 10% of the American students who took our anonymous survey (a survey designed to find out what Americans really think about their international classmates) told us that they wouldn't want more international students at their school.

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Genesis Santana Lizano's apartment is perfectly located. On the border of Fitzroy and Carlton, the 96 tram is on her literal doorstep-along with the Royal Exhibition Building and endless rows of million dollar terrace houses. The media and communications student moved to Australia three years ago to study at the University of Melbourne. Funded fully by an Ecuadorian Government scholarship, Lizano tells VICE that she came to the Victorian capital after being told "it was the most liveable city in the world."

The crime rate, she'd heard, was low compared to other countries. And the weather? Famously sunny. There was another factor, too. "The process to apply was very, very easy. It didn't take as long as the other [international] universities."

There might be a reason for that. According to the Department of Education and Training, 492,964 international students are currently studying in Australia: a 14 percent increase from this time last year. Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham has referred frequently to the international student boom, highlighting its economic benefits. In Victoria alone, international students-who unlike locals pay unsubsidised education fees-are worth $6.5 billion to the local economy. For the Australian Government and tertiary institutions themselves, there's huge incentive to lure in students from other countries.

When they arrive, these students will have very different study experiences to their Australian peers. Not that they'd necessarily know it-the two groups of students rarely mix in class or out of it. "When I first came here I had a lot of trouble making Australian friends," Lizano says. "And I still don't have any. I guess that's the hardest part of being here. I haven't met any Australian friends at uni. In every tutorial it's international students at one table, all the other students at another. A clear divide."

If you've attended any university in Australia, you'd be hard pressed to disagree with this characterisation. International and local students don't mix, and for Lizano, the segregation stems from a set of fundamental misunderstandings.

"Australians think all international students are wealthy, there's this common thought around uni that we're really privileged, we don't need to study, we don't need to get a job, that sort of thing," Lizano says. "People think we're either not proficient enough in English, and we don't work as hard as they do. So it's really hard for us to be in a mixed group if we have a group project, because they don't think we're responsible enough, or something."

These stereotypes hit Lizano particularly hard. Her family can't afford to subsidise her education or living expenses-she's entirely reliant on scholarship payments. She hasn't been back to Ecuador or seen her parents and siblings for three years. "I'm guessing that there must be some international students who are rich like that, but I've met a lot of international students who work their ass off every day. Not only at uni, they work jobs as well. And they have to study full time while they do that because we're not allowed to be part time."

So back to that liveable city thing. Lizano says almost all of her stipend goes towards paying for accommodation-Melbourne rent is expensive and for the first two years of her degree she was paying for international student accommodation, which costs double the price of your typical sharehouse. She feels compelled to prioritise study over socialising because failing a single subject would cancel her scholarship, and has struggled to make friends outside of the expat community. The experience has been mixed.

Still, she loves Melbourne and would like to stay here longer if it wasn't for the fact her scholarship requires her to return to Ecuador immediately after graduation and remain in the country for eight years. But the experience hasn't always been easy. "I think we maybe have a little more pressure than local students," she says carefully.

Half an hour's drive away in one of the many sprawling student apartment blocks at Monash University's Clayton campus, occupied almost exclusively by international students, lives Lewis Wong. He moved to Melbourne from Hong Kong two years ago to study banking and finance, choosing Monash because of its high international ranking. He found entry far less competitive than similar courses in his home country. "I came here for my career and future," he says. The quality of education has a been "great investment", although Wong does note that "It's expensive compared to the locals. Our tuition for one course is their tuition fee for the whole semester."

Like Lizano, Wong has enjoyed his time so far studying in Australia. But he doesn't feel particularly embedded in the local culture. "Most of [my friends] are Asian or from Hong Kong," he says. "I go to class and the locals see me as Asian. There is that divide. It's hard to communicate."

Those Asian stereotypes don't make things easy. It's common, Wong says, for locals to immediately assume he's Chinese. He's found that assumptions about wealth affect how others perceive him too.

"At my workplace, some of my coworkers have the working holiday visa, and they think that I'm an international student and I'm very rich and wonder why do I have to still work there? But actually I'm not. I want to try and earn some money to support my daily expenses. I'm trying not to let my family feel like I'm a heavy burden."

What's one thing he wished locals knew about internationals? "That they want to make local friends. My English is not that good but we are still trying our best to talk with them."

Someone who has had more success mingling with Australians is Singaporean politics student Justin Koh, who attends the University of Melbourne. He agrees that international students are segregated from locals, but has made inroads into the local culture by joining sports teams.

"Mixing with Aussies has been really eye opening for me and really nice. I play football here and that's how I've met locals. Culture-wise I feel Australians are more liberal, more carefree, which is great. There are things Singaporeans can actually learn from Aussie culture. They're proactive and they voice their opinions. I think that's commendable," he says.

Koh frequently refers to how "blessed" he is to study in Melbourne. His family, he says, gave him a rare opportunity to learn about life in another country. Still, it's been an uphill battle to try and fit in.

"In Melbourne Uni the local students voice their opinions freely and sometimes in class I feel I'm too quiet. But when I got to second year I started to talk. I thought maybe people wouldn't understand my accent, that might be a stumbling block. But I managed to get over it. And so far it's good. When I voice my opinion in class they're actually very receptive to it."

He advises that fellow international students "leave the bubble" and hang out with locals. But they might have to be patient in confronting certain ignorances while doing so-he's often forced to explain that the reason his "English is so good" is that Singaporeans are taught to speak it from birth.

If anyone can offer an objective insight into the life of an international student in Australia, it's Colin Carson. He's been studying abroad most his life. With parents from the United States and Indonesia, he went to an international high school in Singapore and then spent a year at an American college. Now he's at Monash, and highly active in the leadership committees of two student societies for Asian locals and ex-pats.

Being part of these student clubs has enriched Carson's campus experience, but made it hard to meet non-Asian students. He doesn't necessarily see this as a problem. "My friends here are mainly international students because it's a lot easier. It shouldn't be but it is," he explains. "We're more connected. You have similar cultural touchstones, you know? Like going to the Hawker centre. Even the shows you watch, the articles and media sites you read. They're super different."

He's well aware of the rich kid stereotypes that come with being an international student, and begs to differ. "You can make those generalisations, like you see a lot of PRC students with flashy cars and motorbikes. But you see thousands more that don't, you know what I mean? There's that misconception there because they're a relative minority who are reasonably flashy and it's easy to lump the rest in with that."
For something related, check out this VICE HBO special on the weird ways US students are dealing with debt:
Carson's parents pay his Monash fees and living expenses, although he's currently looking for a part-time job to chip in. He's struggled so far, as have many of his friends-some of whom are considerably more desperate for work.

"You can't really find anything that's not a cash under the table situation. Even if you're searching on Seek or whatever, it's one out of 10 that says international students are welcome. The rest say, 'Please no international students or people on work visas'."

Carson doesn't mince words when it comes to his Australian job prospects after university, either. After seeing multiple friends try and fail to use their inordinately expensive degrees to find local jobs, he's not optimistic. "A lot of people I both know have tried to stay here but then they've just had to go home because they couldn't find anything. A lot of accounting students and finance grads. Everywhere in the business school, pretty much. I'd like to stay here but I'll probably end up going back."

Money is on the mind of Singaporean screen and cultural studies student Julienne Marie Somasundram too. Sitting on the couch of her small student-chic apartment in St Kilda, Somasundram says she encounters the stereotypes all the time.

"But we're not all the same. We're not all from rich families and here to just pay our way through a degree. Back home we have this mentality that you have to be brilliant to get into a local uni, and anyone who goes to an international uni that isn't Cambridge or Oxford is because you couldn't get into a local uni. You're just paying your way through. But no, we work hard. It's not easy, I work for my education. That's what I want people to know."

She's endured the same "Where in China are you from?" stereotyping as many of her international student peers, and isn't unfamiliar with casual racism. "This one time when my parents were here, they were walking down the street and this guy on a bicycle just shouted 'Immigration's that way!'", she recalls.

Of course, some of Somasundram's struggles will be familiar to any student in the world. Moving out of home for the first time was most difficult, she says, because she had to cook and clean for herself. "And use a washing machine for the first time!"

And yet, the divide. In lecture theatres across the world's most liveable city, students take the same notes. Yet they don't speak. Somasundram, along with many of her friends, is resigned to it.

"Even when there's five white people in the class they all sit together and there are no Asians on that table. It just happens. I can't really explain it, you can't change it, you just let it be, you know?"

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Being an International Student Is a Minefield of Stereotypes and Misconceptions

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Genesis Santana Lizano's apartment is perfectly located. On the border of Fitzroy and Carlton, the 96 tram is on her literal doorstep-along with the Royal Exhibition Building and endless rows of million dollar terrace houses. The media and communications student moved to Australia three years ago to study at the University of Melbourne.

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Australia - Asia relations

Asian students 'disconnect' from local students, study finds

Institutions could do more to encourage connections between international and local students, Catherine Gomes suggests Studying in another country can be rewarding and culturally enriching-but it can also be an alienating experience compounded by homesickness, the absence of support from family and friends, and loss of identity.
Between 2013 and 2016 I conducted research on the everyday lives of tertiary-going international students living in Australia in order to understand how they coped being away from their families and from the familiar surroundings of their home countries.

In-depth interviews with 60 international students in Melbourne and online survey data from 92 international students across Australia turned up some surprising results.

I found that students coped with living in a foreign country by being part of friendship groups based on their identities as international students. These groups provided them with the emotional and practical support that they felt local students-even those of ethnic similarities-could not provide.

Even though they were living in a foreign country-Australia-it was not their country of birth or ethnicity that determined their social networks, but rather the fact that they were international students.

While the students acknowledged that their nationality was significant to them and not easily hidden or erased, it was their distinctive identity as international students that created the strongest sense of identity for them while studying in Australia. Akbar*, who was in his late 20s and a postgraduate student from Pakistan, elaborated:

For me I preferred to be called as a student, like international student if we talk about it-especially in Australia or like a country there.

Akbar's identifying as an international student was not surprising since it was the very reason for his presence in Australia. Likewise, being officially labelled as such allowed the international students I surveyed to be part of an identifiable collective. Their status as foreign students provided them with an almost immediate community which they could identify with and feel a sense of belonging to, because of the common shared experiences of living as foreigners in Australia.

Moreover, while international students made friends largely with co-nationals in the first instance and then to a lesser degree from their geographical region of birth, and less so from elsewhere, these friends were primarily international students. For instance, ethnic Chinese international students might make friends with other ethnic Chinese international students from China, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia; however, they would not do the same with ethnic Chinese who were not international students. Ethnicity, in other words, did not facilitate organic forms of social relations while in transience.

So why are international students drawn to one another?

Common experiences

International students are drawn to one another because of their status as foreigners living in a foreign nation. Most often they make friends with other international students whom they meet in their courses, workplaces, living areas and interest groups such as church groups.

The students I spoke to felt that only others in similar situations would be able to understand the issues they were going through while living overseas, such as the emotional factors of being away from home and the practical issues connected with living in Australia-e.g. finding suitable, affordable accommodation, safety and nearness to campus, opening a bank account and convenient places to shop for groceries and essentials.

While they still connected with friends living in their home country and kept in contact with them in various ways, having other international students as friends allowed them to fill the huge gap that had been left because of their separation not only from their homeland but, more significantly, from their family and friends.

These common experiences, however, did not necessary lead to international students connecting with local students who they recognised as being 'different' to them. Local students, they explained, did not go through the same experiences as them. Sharing common ground as students, in other words, was not as significant as the shared experience of being an international student navigating through off-campus everyday activities.

Surprisingly, this lack of connectivity to local students took place despite ethnic similarities.

Inability to connect

When I asked Asian international students if they had friends who were Asian Australians-that is, Asians who were either born or raised in Australia-their answers varied. The term 'Asian Australian' itself provoked diverse reactions. Some understood members of this group to be loosely grouped Australian-born-Chinese, while others thought it referred only to Asian-born permanent residents. Those who said they were friends with Asian-born permanent residents noted that these were recent migrants whom they considered more culturally similar to themselves since they too were 'more Asian than Australian'.

The students explained they generally did not have Asian Australian friends, since they perceived them as wanting to be friends only with white Australians. They also felt they did not have much in common with Asian Australians because this group was 'more Australian'.

While Asian international students may be ethnically and in some ways culturally similar to Asian Australians, both groups have evolved differently because of varied communal experiences based on time and place

They also felt Asian Australians had more in common with white Australians than with Asian international students. John*, a 32-year-old PhD student from India, for example, felt that Indian Australians who had grown up in Australia were out of touch with India and, culturally, more Australian than Indian:

I found that people of Indian origin who have been outside India for one generation or so, have lost their touch with India to such an extent that, for me seeing from this perspective, there's not much of a difference between a person who is not a native Indian at all and a person who is settled out of India except for one generation or so. Even, for example, people settle in Australia for more than one generation, they can speak my language, understand me, facial expressions are similar and all, but for me they're as good as local Australians.

For John, the Indian diaspora in Australia was so removed from him that he found it hard to identify with-least of all have interpersonal relationships with-its members.

So, as this case demonstrates, while Asian international students may be ethnically and in some ways culturally similar to Asian Australians, both groups have evolved differently because of varied communal experiences based on time and place.

The disconnections experienced by international students from those who are ethnically similar but who grew up in Australia were echoed in another study I conducted with colleagues on international students, their social networks and information-seeking behaviour.

In an online, Australia-wide survey of nearly 6,700 respondents, we found only 62, or 0.94 per cent, who stated that their social networks were dominated by Australians who were ethnically similar to them.

What we can read here is that international students are unable to identify with locals who are ethnically similar because they do not share similar experiences. The concerns of locals such as Asian Australians would be Australia-specific, with issues of belonging within the rubric of citizenship and nationhood dominating their discourse. International students, though, have very different concerns since they are temporary.
Implications
In light of these findings-that international students have very few, if any, local friends-how should institutions attempt to influence their social interactions?

Institution-based social programs can play an important role. Although institutions obviously can't force locals and international students to intermingle, they can help bring them together, especially during orientation weeks.

Institutions often have excellent orientation programs for new international students. These specialised programs, however, typically take place before the institution-wide orientation day, preventing the opportunity for international students to socialise with local students, thus increasing the likelihood that they will make friends only with other international students. By the time new local students hit campus, international students will likely have established the friends they will be spending time with throughout the year.

Institutions therefore need to create inclusive orientation programs that foster interaction between local and international students. One way to do this would be to actively include interstate and country students in the international student orientation program. This would allow international students to meet Australians who are, in some ways, just as alien as they are. This would also offer Australian students who are new to the state or area a guided introduction as well as the chance of making new international friends.

Parts of this article can be found in C Gomes, ' Connections and disconnections: forming parallel societies in transience', Transient Mobility and Middle Class Identity: Media and Migration in Australia and Singapore, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp. 149-184.

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International students prefer to identify with other international students rather than locals who are ethnically similar. Photo: Catherine Gomes
Dr Catherine Gomes is a senior lecturer in Media and Communications at RMIT and the recipient of a Discovery Early Career Award funded by the Australian government.

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Asian students 'disconnect' from local students, study finds - Asian Studies Association of Australia

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Institutions could do more to encourage connections between international and local students, Catherine Gomes suggests Studying in another country can be rewarding and culturally enriching-but it can also be an alienating experience compounded by homesickness, the absence of support from family and friends, and loss of identity.