Discrimination In International Study

An increasing number of research studies at United States universities indicate that international students are a source of numerous benefits including financial stability for the university, as well as cultural awareness and improved skills for domestic students (Luo & Jamieson-Drake, 2013; Owens, Srivastava, & Feerasta, 2011). The presence of students from diverse cultures on campus can also have profound effects on the way students view learning and the world in which they live. International students have the potential to impact both our personal and professional lives (Reagan, 2005). However, many international students face discrimination as they study in the United States with more than 50% indicating that they have personally dealt …show more content…
For instance, those who suffered from perceptions of discrimination had lower levels of adjustment to the United States educational system, which can lead to less likelihood that students will persist at their chosen institution (Poyrazli & Lopez, 2007). Therefore, it is important to look at the issue of discrimination in order to determine how it affects students on a personal level and how it may affect their decision to persist in their education. However, international students are not a homogenous group and differ greatly from one nation to another (Terrazas-Carrillo, Hong, & Pace, 2014). Students from non-white nations have much higher incidences of perceived discrimination, especially students from Africa, and the Middle East (Hanassab, 2006). Therefore, the study aims to study the overall prevalence of discrimination among international students and to compare students based on whether they come from a predominately non-white area of the world. In turn, it is our goal to determine how discrimination may affect international students by conducting personal interviews to allow them to tell their story. The results of a survey sometimes offer generalized data that can be better understood by the addition of the in-depth experiences gathered in qualitative data (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). By studying the incidence rates and narratives of discrimination, universities can develop a …show more content…
Our initial results indicated that discrimination was not as prevalent as previous studies had shown, with less than half of respondents indicating that they had concerns with discrimination in the area (Poyrazli & Lopez, 2007; Sawir et al., 2012). In fact, only 27.87% of students agreed or strongly agreed that discrimination from Americans was a concern for them. Additionally, 14.76% agreed that discrimination from other international students was a concern and 22.22% said they were concerned about police discrimination. However, an analysis of students from non-white nations compared to those from predominately white nations showed significant differences between the two groups. For instance, students from non-white nations were more concerned with discrimination from Americans (M = 3.17, SD = 1.39), t(51) = 4.07, p < .001. In addition, students from non-white nations also had greater concerns with discrimination from other international students (M = 2.70, SD = 1.26), t(51) = 2.38, p = .01. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups when it came to police discrimination. As a result of the survey conclusions, we focused the interview questions on discrimination from Americans and from other international students. Complete quantitative data analyses can be found in Tables 1 and