Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration - The International Student Experience in New Zealand: Connecting Research and Practice, Oct 2020

With increasing student mobility continuing to impact on the provision of educational services across the world, even more importance is now placed on positive intercultural interactions with and between international students and members of the host community. However, despite nationwide policies encouraging these interactions in New Zealand, limitations in the design of school structures and implementation of school practices have in some ways hindered the integration of international students and led to examples of separation instead. To illustrate these aspects, and using the acculturation strategies of separation, integration, marginalization and assimilation as an analytical framework, this article draws on data collected from 131 international students and 24 teachers at an international school in New Zealand. A snapshot is provided of where international students are positioned in the acculturation process, and further discussion focuses on two school-wide activities: Orientation, which is mandatory under the Education (Pastoral Care of International Students) Code of Practice 2016, and Cultural Week. Findings indicate that the espoused intentions of these practices were perceived differently by teachers and students. This article, therefore, suggests that for international students to achieve well academically and to integrate successfully into New Zealand, they must be provided with a high level of continued quality pastoral care services before, upon and after arrival.

This article is based on a study that explores international students’ understanding of academic literacies in New Zealand library environments. The article aims to provide insights into international higher degree students’ (IHDSs’) understandings of their academic literacy practices in library environments. To address this issue, the study utilizes an interpretative framework drawing from Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. Despite a significant body of literature on international students, little is known about the interaction of this cohort with the academic library, and limited information is available on IHDSs’ academic literacies in New Zealand library environments. Our article responds to this critical gap in the existing literature on international students. The findings of the study underscore the importance for librarians, learning advisors and academics to consider international students’ characteristics, language proficiency, learning styles and interests in designing teaching techniques and effective support for this cohort.

The globalization of the knowledge economy and a concomitant increase in educational mobility have seen greater numbers of international students take up studies in Aotearoa/New Zealand’s education system. As a result of increased educational mobility, alongside other types of migration, ethno-cultural and linguistic diversity has become more common in New Zealand schools. This internationalization of Aotearoa/New Zealand’s education sector has been met with government policies and strategies to ensure the well-being of international students. In these strategies, well-being is indicated by economic security, health and safety, as well as high-quality education and a welcoming and inclusive experience in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Drawing on data from a research project that examined how school policies and practices shape international English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) students’ sense of belonging, inclusion and well-being at a New Zealand secondary school, this article illuminates how school language practices impact on international students’ well-being. Specifically, the article highlights a profound mismatch between the diversification of the student body and the privileging of monolingual English-only practices in the classroom as well as the disparity between intentions and effects of the school’s pull-out ESOL class programme, in which ESOL-designated students are taught separately from ‘mainstream’ students. The discussion highlights the detrimental and discriminatory impacts such language practices had on international students. Based on this analysis, we argue that strategies that are designed to ensure international student well-being need to put greater emphasis on the instructional needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners by advocating for linguistically responsive practices and that schools need to normalize multilingual practices to ensure international student well-being and to work towards equitable and just education.

This study explores the everyday living experiences of five Vietnamese postgraduate students in New Zealand, employing an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach. The analysis revealed one minor theme that captures the students’ preparations before coming to New Zealand and one overarching theme that focuses on living arrangements and circumstances. The students were ill-prepared for their lives in New Zealand, which contributed to the difficulties encountered. They were shocked to find that their studies and lives were affected by accommodation arrangements, which forced them to learn to cope with unfamiliar issues. The overarching essence is that a variety of factors (e.g., familial, cultural and gender factors) influenced the students’ experiences. However, drawing on traditional, cultural values, the students could overcome these difficulties. The study has implications for host universities to assist students in coping with the harsh reality of everyday living issues, including having a roof over one’s head.

The purpose of this article is to explore to what extent international students may be affected by a lack of study/work-life balance or study-work-life balance amongst those who study (full-time) and work part-time. International students tend to face more pressures due to usually lacking a support network, at least for some time once arriving in the host country. Such pressures may be financial or social and may be due to a lack of awareness of host country norms and regulations or due to language barriers. An online survey informed by work-life balance theory was completed by 42 international students. The findings from the analysis of responses were that while most respondents were satisfied with their study-work-life balance, some although managing overall, faced pressures. A key finding was that the students managed due to the student visa condition restricting employment to a maximum of twenty hours per week. This seems to have helped respondents to focus more time on their studies, however, may add to financial pressures or put international students at a disadvantage over their domestic peers in terms of gaining work experience. Further, findings have uncovered that although working while studying provides additional pressures, it creates benefits through the ability to build a support network.

International education has become a dynamic export sector and a key source of income for education providers in New Zealand. Its development in the last twenty years has been characterized by steady growth of student numbers, and yet the economic good news has been tempered by a growing awareness of the acculturative stress and anxiety international students’ experience. This concern is exacerbated by news stories that depict international students as a disadvantaged group, and the profound impact of COVID-19 has highlighted international students’ vulnerability to a global pandemic. In the light of these complex challenges, there is a strengthening case for focused work on theory-to-practice models that support international student acculturation in educational contexts. This article introduces the CI model for intercultural contact as a framework that supports education providers’ engagement with international students. It draws on indigenous perspectives embedded in New Zealand’s bicultural heritage and presents three key concepts underpinned by research findings and practitioner experience: cross-disciplinary inquiry, comprehensible input and collaborative intervention.

This article examines the impetus for and development of a guide for teaching international students at a polytechnic in New Zealand. Tensions educators may experience when teaching and assessing international students have sometimes been overlooked due to a primary focus on the sector’s economic value. The authors are educators who acknowledge the strengthening of global education as it trends around the world and the emerging initiatives New Zealand has put in place to remain relevant. In the Guide, we focus on the educators’ realm, the classroom, and offer research informed strategies for teachers to better facilitate successful learning outcomes. The Guide discussed is an in-house publication.

Hospitality is usually defined as a benevolent act towards strangers. The concept has seen a revival during the ‘European migrant crisis’, as a humanitarian duty inspired by ancient traditions and natural empathy. This narrative is unsatisfying because it depoliticizes hospitality, homogenizes its historical meanings and neglects to take seriously the features of hospitality that are incompatible with modern politics. In order to redefine the concept of hospitality for contemporary issues, it is necessary to understand precisely what hospitality has meant throughout its different historical and philosophical instantiations and what kind of political problems it was supposed to address. This article offers a genealogy of the various political features of hospitality and distinguishes four sources of it: the ancient relation of dependence, the politics of ritualized hospitality, the medieval and Christian roots of hospitality as charity and its emergence as a natural right. Then, I argue for a reconstruction of the political meaning of hospitality for contemporary migration issues, based on practical mobilizations of the concept. I define modern hospitality as the collective obligation to relieve distress caused by crossing borders.