Asian International Students’ Racial-Ethnic Identity in a Post-Pandemic Era: A Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Study

• In Event: Reframing Research, Identity, and Belonging in Global Higher Education for Asian International Students

Abstract

More than one million international students study in the U.S., with the majority coming from Asia (Institute of International Education, 2023). For many Asian international students (AIS), moving from racially homogeneous home countries to a racialized environment of the U.S. shifts their perceptions of race from nationality-based to phenotype- and racially-based (Jing, 2022). The exacerbated anti-Asian racism and uprising social justice movements during the COVID-19 pandemic likely heightened AIS’ awareness of their pan-ethnic identity (Koo et al., 2021). However, existing frameworks of racial-ethic identity development mainly examined international students of Color as an aggregate group (Yeo, 2020; Fries-Britt et al., 2014) and focused mostly on U.S.-born Asians (Kim, 2012), overlooking the transnational nature of AIS’ racial-ethnic identity development. Furthermore, existing studies on Asians’ racial-ethnic identity development are cross-sectional, collecting data only once (e.g., Iwamoto & Liu, 2010), or have employed either quantitative or qualitative methods exclusively. Consequently, little is known about the longitudinal trends and complexities of racial-ethnic identity development among AIS. Given the significant gap in scholarship, we utilize a mixed-method longitudinal approach to examine the following research questions in our study: (1) What is the racial-ethnic identity development of AIS at four year research intensive universities in the aftermath of the pandemic? (2) How might AIS’ racial-ethnic identity shift over the course of one year? and (3) To what extent is AIS’ racial-ethnic identity development associated with their academic and psychosocial success?

Data is collected from two research intensive universities through three phases: (1) an initial survey at the beginning of the academic year, (2) in-person photovoice focus groups at the mid-point of the academic year, and (3) a follow-up survey at the end of the academic year. Employing a mixed-method approach, we first analyze the survey data followed by the focus group data, then compare the two to identify converges or diverges. Preliminary findings may include participants’ stronger attachment to their ethnic identity in comparison to their racial identity, mirroring the way that Asian immigrants use ethnicity to describe themselves more often than their pan-ethnic identity (Ruiz et al., 2023). Moreover, participants with more engagement in learning about their race and/or ethnicity over the course of the academic year may demonstrate a stronger sense of their racial-ethnic identity overall compared with those who do not. Additionally, participants with positive racial-ethnic identities likely experience positive psychological and academic adjustment at their institutions.

Given the significant representation of AIS in U.S. higher education institutions, understanding their racial-ethnic identity development will help promote better support systems, enabling them to succeed and serve as change agents in advancing racial justice on their campuses and in U.S. society. This study has a significant impact on expanding the scholarship on Asian students’ racial-ethnic identity development, informing promising practices for educators to better support these students on their campuses, and broadening the discourse around Asian pan-ethnicity and transnational racial sensemaking in the U.S.

Authors

• Jia Zheng, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Shinji Katsumoto, University of Southern Mississippi