Social Factors Relating to Alienation Experienced by International Students in the United States

Previous literature suggests that international students experience more serious alienation than do American students due to difficulty in adjusting to new campus life in the United States. The purpose of the current study is to find out the applicability of the social correlates of alienation, as evidenced in previous studies, to the college under study and to find out the extent to which the findings may deviate from studies done in larger educational institutions. I proposed a variation in the level of alienation experienced by International and American students, and that relationships exist between independent variables--geographic home region, duration of stay in the U.S. and College, and frequency of social contact with other students and dependent variable--alienation. Survey questionnaires were used to collect data from a representative sample of 94 students over the period of two semesters in 2003/04 academic year. Using contingency tables and statistical measures of association for analysis, results reveal that social contact is associated with alienation significantly while the effects of gender and age are held constant. Duration of stay in the U.S. and duration of stay in college have weak associations with alienation, whereas geographic home region has no relationship with alienation. There is no evidence to suggest a variation in alienation experienced by foreign and American students within the context of this small, minority-serving college. Respondents offer suggestions for smooth adjustment of foreign students to U.S. College and university campuses. Introduction It appears that international students experience more serious and painful adjustment to U. S. campus life than do native-born American or host students (Klineberg and Hull, 1979; Alexander et al., 1981; Owie, 1982). Factors such as loneliness (Alexander et al., 1981), helplessness, desire for dependence, hostility, fear, and bewilderment (Oberg, 1960) are some of the emotional and psychological characteristics associated with the process of adjustment or alienation experience (Schram and Lauver, 1988). Hegel defines alienation as what happens to the socialized man when he becomes removed from his own nature and the natural world through knowledge (Nettler, 1957). According to Seeman (1959), alienation "denotes the estrangement of the individual from key aspects of his or her social existence ... alienation is a feeling on the part of the individual that he cannot influence the situations in which he interacts." The concept of alienation is used in this paper to mean the state of feeling confused, lost, lonely, helpless, and desire for dependence. The current study builds on earlier and outdated studies, updates the data, and provides additional information on the subject. The purpose is to examine this phenomenon further, but this time, within the context of a small, minority-serving institution whose international students predominantly share similarities with home students in terms of physical characteristics. The impetus behind this paper is the curiosity to find out the applicability of the social correlates of alienation, as evidenced in previous studies, to the college under study. Also, I would like to find out the extent to which the findings may deviate from studies done in larger educational institutions. To this end, the study addresses the following questions: (1) Is alienation in international students significantly different from that which is experienced by host students? (2) What are the social correlates of alienation experienced by foreign students? (3) What programs can be instituted to help foreign students adjust comfortably to their new environment? In this paper, the phrases international students and foreign students are used interchangeably. An international or foreign student refers to a student who comes from another country (and for that matter a different culture) to study in the United States. …