The phenomenon of spiritual homelessness in transnational spaces among international students in the United States

Abstract

Although student mobility and educational border crossings, particularly from non‐Western economies to English‐speaking countries, such as the United States, are not new, theoretical concepts that help illuminate global student mobilities rarely examine lived realities of university students in transnational spaces. We aim to explore the phenomenon of ‘spiritual homelessness’ experienced by international students in the United States and how their perceived sense of belonging and not belonging in their home or host places contribute to their reconstruction of identity in transnational spaces. Based on a 3‐hour focus group discussion with international students from eight different countries (N = 11) studying at a large southern university in the United States, this study highlights the nexus between multiple, contradictory and simultaneous processes of belonging and identity through student‐defined transnational higher education spaces. Findings demonstrate that international students are part of multiple and contradictory discourses, where there is a synergetic construction of transnational spaces as open and diverse, but also discriminatory and exclusionary as they negotiate where they belong or not belong. This study provides a critical scoping of student‐defined spaces and foregrounds the typological theoretical construct of spiritual homelessness to provide new insights into global student mobilities and identity reconstruction in transnational spaces.

The hidden minority: Discrimination and mental health among international students in the US during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…The findings of our study also support previous studies that describe international students as operating in transnational spaces – in between two cultures (Maleku et al., 2021). They study in a host country that does not embrace their cultural differences and norms, while their friends and family in their home countries often misunderstand their changing identities.…”

“…The findings of our study corroborate the impact of current discrimination, pandemic othering, and harassment experienced by ethnic minoritised international students, even on allegedly inclusive US campuses. These findings also affirm prior studies exposing the contradictory nature of higher education environments, which are simultaneously open and diverse as well as discriminatory and exclusionary, often driven by economic, political, and sociocultural influences (Maleku et al., 2021). The current pandemic‐related stressors operate both at interpersonal and policy levels: international students faced exclusionary policies (Israel & Batalova, 2021), had reduced access to resources, became easy targets of racism, discrimination and xenophobic behaviours (Mittelmeier & Cockayne, 2020), and suffered continuing neglect by their host countries and universities (Cheng, 2020; Lai et al., 2020; Lowery, 2020).…”

“…They study in a host country that does not embrace their cultural differences and norms, while their friends and family in their home countries often misunderstand their changing identities. This creates a feeling of ‘spiritual homelessness’, where international students feel they do not belong in either space (Maleku et al., 2021). Our findings show that international students who lived with their families were grateful for family support but also had difficulty negotiating their personal space, which negatively impacted their work and potentially contributed to feelings of spiritual homelessness.…”

“…These challenges often arise from individual, structural, and transnational challenges associated with acculturation stressors, not belonging in either host or home spaces, and feeling spiritually homeless (Kim et al, 2019;Maleku et al, 2021). Financial and academic pressure, homesickness, and cultural and linguistic barriers…”

“…More than a million international students study at US colleges and universities – 5.5% of all US college students (IIE, 2020) – and occupy a precarious space at the intersection of immigration policy and global education mobility. As a group of temporary migrants, international students play a unique and complex role and cannot simply be defined in contrast to local students (Maleku et al., 2021). They participate in multiple economic systems as consumers, employees, and potential contributors to their country of study (Hazen & Alberts, 2006) and country of origin (Börjesson, 2017), making them both a minority and a priority population.…”