International Students and their Sex Lives: Constructing Social Distance in the Host Country

• In Event: 136 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 08. Identity, Access and Agency among Race/Ethnic Minority Students

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to map theoretical conceptions in distinctive sociological subfields in order to initiate conversation centered around intimate relationships that international students build in the U.S., which allow for an examination of the sexualities of international student on their migratory passage. International students and how they have intimate relationships in the host country remains untouched because the current literature treats the students' sexualities as a marginal factor in their migration trajectories when compared to education and career prospects. I approach the sex lives of international students as managing social distances with relation to the contradictory dynamics of international student migration. Developing Simmelian idea of social distance, I argue that only when we investigate the complex and conflicting construction of social distance, and how international students alter their social distance by their social position, can we successfully understand how the social distance is created, sustained or changed by the practices of the international students. In order to do that, I show complex formation of social distance surrounding international students when they date. Finally, I describe some possible situations that international students might experience when dating in the host country.

Author

• Yu-Ri Kim, Vanderbilt University