Well what about integration?

Integrating

What about it?

Integration

Feeling like you fit in

Although many international students at Rhodes have been fortunate enough to have found a welcoming environment there remains a disconnect between South African students and International students. This disconnect creates an ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality that can lead to xenophobic behaviour.  By speaking to international students and asking them to share their stories of acceptance, warmth, guidance and love, as well as of those of alienation, discrimination and shunning we can all understand ourselves and each other a little better.

International students often express their challenges of living in a different country. Some of these challenges can resonate with South African students as well. From accommodation problems, culture shock, financial challenges, language barrier, transport problems and peer pressure to xenophobic attitudes towards African students.  There are ways to face and address these challenges while at Rhodes like joining a society, making new friends, getting involved in community engagement, asking the lecturers for assistance, or seeking help from other international students. 

Integration

Language

International students come to Rhodes with diverse cultural backgrounds, different academic preparation, and expectations about where they’re about to live. Learning about a different culture, and immersing yourself in that culture (Rhodes culture for example, or South African culture) is a great social skill to have that expands your friendship circles, helps you address your academics head-on and helps you grow as an individual. A big part of culture is language. The language we use as can aid in our integration process on a daily basis, for example, what colloquial language we learn, or what lingo is used around campus.

However, the bigger issue around language is an actual language barrier that exists regardless of attempts made by the international students to reach out to the Makhanda community. There is a very clear feeling among international students from other parts of Africa that because they are unable to speak vernacular languages, and in particular, isiXhosa, because it is the most widely spoken in this region, there are treated differently. They are asked “why can’t you speak your mother tongue” which they respond with, “I can, I’m just not from South Africa.” This explanation results in locals treating international students even more differently than before.  For an international student attempting to be a part of a community, this can limit social and academic integration processes, and really affect how you begin to interact with people in the future.

Watch: Experiences with Xenophobia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P4A3xNzSac

Integration

Integration does not need not a five-liner explanation with a footnote. It means that students from diverse backgrounds take part together in social activities like having a braai, or watching a rugby game together. It means that both international students and South African students learn from each other in social academic spaces. It means that we as international students feel ‘at home’ in a place far away from our actual homes because we feel comfortable mingling with the people and environment around us.

It is so important for international students to feel like we are really a part of Rhodes Culture. It’s important for your well-being, your mental health, for you to feel satisfied and fulfilled, to be able to achieve your academic goals, and finally, because it’s great forfostering a variety of global citizenship perspectives. There is sometimes a tendency to ‘blame’ international students for sticking within their groups and for not making enough effort to mix, saying integration it’s solely on you as an international student. In fact, it is everyone’s responsibility. It isSouth African students’ responsibility to not be xenophobic, and to help out with language and culture. It is the international students’ responsibility to put yourself out there and be open to immersing yourself in this amazing country (you’re already here, aren’t you?). Finally, it is teaching and administrative staff as well as senior managements’ responsibility to ensure this is a safe space, free from discrimination.

Changing a mindset:

Approaching people different to ourselves requires effort and a willingness to deal with potentially uncomfortable situations. You need to leave your comfort zones to meet and learn from others. While this is highly important for your personal growth, you might find that you are toexperience things that annoy or upset you and that’s when there is a risk of negative evaluations and stereotyping. To prevent this, we as students, both international and South African need to understand the value of moving out of the comfort zone and be given the tools to make the best out of the experience that is attending university. 

The next step, is changing your mindset based on the new knowledge you acquired from stepping out of your zone. For example: you have the mindset that local students at Rhodes aren’t going to have a lot in common with you, because you’re from very different places, so the chances of making local friends are low. It’s important that you try hanging out with a local student anyway, and they might annoy you and their habits might seem bizarre, but when you’ve had your coffee and said goodbye, you want to reflect and evaluate why you had that idea in the first place. Most likely what you’ll find is that even if you’re very different people from very different places, both of you may like playing soccer, and both of you were raised with sisters, and you’re both studying pharmacy.  Look. You have things in common.

How can the university bridge these challenges?

Institutional backing of contact and collaboration is vital in creating the setting for positive contact between different groups of people of different nationalities.Universities need to act to counter structural challenges, especially in places where relationships can develop naturally. In reses, it’s about ensuring a good student mix in university accommodation. In academics, it’s about promoting intercultural teamwork, providing common rooms where students can work and interact, and in terms of extra-curricular activities it’s about promoting the participation in sports teams and societies and ensuring they are willing and equipped to welcome diverse groups of students.

 

Institutions are aware of the importance of the internationalization of education and are making conscious efforts to internationally integrate their institutions. More and more institutions have links, cooperation and partnerships with other institutions across the globe. Exchange of students between institutions is on the increase, facilitation of visit of scholars to increase students’ knowledge base and many students are crossing borders to acquire degrees from South African higher education institutions. 

 

Students tend to settle into friendship groups quite quickly, like during orientation, most of us found our people and five years later we’re still stuck with them. Some of these people are internationals students as well, while others are from South Africa. But because we tend to stick to the first comfortable thing we find, it makes it difficult to get in contact with new groups of students. It’s particularly important to provide local and international students with ample opportunities to meet during orientation. This includes organizing a wide range of activities that appeal to different interests, so that friendships can form around shared hobbies rather than just shared language or nationality.

 

Diversity of students, and by virtue of diversity: viewpoints, is a cornerstone of a global education, so acceptance and integration of international students must be an essential part of a university’s internationalisation process. The engagement of local students with international students is valuable and helps lift overall response towards a diverse, international student body, as well as the internationalisation efforts of a university and of South Africa as a whole.

 

Watch: the reality of being an international student

Watch: making friends