Loneliness and International Students: An Australian Study

TLDR

International students experience personal, social, and cultural loneliness, which can be intensified by institutional settings and is not fully mitigated by same‑culture networks alone. The study examines coping strategies and identifies cultural loneliness as a distinct form arising from lack of familiar cultural or linguistic contexts. Two thirds of interviewed international students reported loneliness or isolation, especially early on, and the study concludes that fostering stronger bonds with local students to help them reconstruct cultural maps is essential to reduce loneliness.

Abstract

In a study of international student security, consisting of 200 intensive interviews with students, resident onshore in Australia, it was found that two thirds of the group had experienced problems of loneliness and/or isolation, especially in the early months. According to Weiss, students experience both personal loneliness because of the loss of contact with families and social loneliness because of the loss of networks. Both forms of loneliness are at times exacerbated by their experiences in institutional sites. The article discusses the coping mechanisms that students use. It identifies a third kind of loneliness experienced by international students, cultural loneliness , triggered by the absence of the preferred cultural and/or linguistic environment. This can affect even students with adequate personal and social support. Thus, same-culture networks are often crucial for international students. Yet same-culture networks are not a universal panacea: They cannot substitute for adequate pastoral care by universities or ensure satisfactory engagement with local cultures, so some causes of cultural loneliness often remain. The article concludes that the creation of stronger bonds between international and local students in the educational setting, helping international students to remake their own cultural maps on their own terms, is key to a forward move on loneliness.