Im/Mobilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perspectives From International Graduate Students

• In Event: Future Directions for Equity-Driven International Student Research in Post/Crisis Times

Abstract

In our presentation, we will identify, address, and problematize how international graduate students navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, and then provide recommendations for future directions. The year 2020-2021 was one filled with contention, including the politicizing of a global virus that affected international students’ lives while studying and living in the United States. For example, discriminatory acts against Asians and Asian Americans rose during the past year, with some blaming former President Trump’s comments about the “China virus” and “kung flu” (Kuo, 2020). In addition, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency announced in July 2020 that international students were not permitted to take a fall course load of fully online classes (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 2020), which caused an uproar in the international education community. Although later rescinded, current and incoming international students experienced immediate and ongoing uncertainty in their visa status. Overall, the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 were and continue to bring ambiguity and insecurity for the international student population in the United States.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many international graduate students were unable to travel back to their home countries. With travel restrictions, international graduate students have been experiencing not only academic pressure, but also social and physical isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants in our study shared how they navigated the pandemic, during which they were worried about their families and friends back in their home countries. Several participants knew people who tested positive for COVID-19. For Ana, a graduate student from Bangladesh, both of her parents as well as herself contracted COVID-19.

In addition to worrying about their families back home, the pandemic also prevented some participants from being able to go home, due to travel bans, closed airlines, and issues surrounding visa status. International graduate students also were concerned with how the pandemic could affect their financial situation. Gupta said, “… being [an] international student, we always worry about our funding, because that's the fixed source of our earnings. How the university will respond to this pandemic? If there is any financial loss, what will be happen to our assistantship?”

The ICE order delivered July 2020 also exacerbated concerns regarding the ongoing pandemic as well as their standing in the country. There was uncertainty about if students could remain in the country to finish up their degrees, especially for students that completed coursework or were in fully online academic programs. For many graduate students like Ana, graduate assistantships require students to work in person, so the possibility of having to leave the country was concerning as this could affect their financial situations.

In this study, we conducted a narrative inquiry combined with participant-generated photo elicitation with 18 international graduate students. Findings revealed how much the events of this past year affect international students’ sensemaking of a health pandemic and other resultant issues in the United States. Our final paper will include detailed implications for practice and recommendations for future research.

Authors

• Christina W. Yao, University of South Carolina

• Jingtong Charlesworth, University of South Carolina

• Kaitlyn Hall, University of South Carolina

• Simone A. F. Gause, Coastal Carolina University