We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012
I think the biggest problems most international students face is that of loneliness, and I mean it really gets to the point of depression. Some of the people I know that I've met, it's really … they don't know what to do, they don't know who to go to, because they have come from countries where it is not acceptable to go and ask for help. You have to do it yourself.
~ male, 29, business, IndiaINTRODUCTION: THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG-DISTANCE STUDENT
Not all international students are secured all the time by bonding relations. Often networks with family and friends are attenuated by distance or by cultural displacement just when they are most needed. For others traditional bonds do not meet all their needs for sociability. Many experience loneliness during their stay. For some loneliness becomes a permanent condition that constrains their agency.
A person is lonely when the need to belong is unsatisfied. As with feelings of hunger, joy and sorrow, loneliness is a human condition that almost everyone has known. Feelings of loneliness cannot be wholly eliminated but they can be modified through the actions of the agent and/or others. Loneliness is more likely to occur under circumstances such as prolonged foreign travel or the loss of significant others. It is one of the defining features of the international student experience.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
