{"title":"Acculturation of Chinese international students in the US: Does sojourner status really matter?","authors":"Liwen Zeng","doi":"10.1111/imig.13236","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Drawing upon the conceptual framework of ‘the sojourner’ in Siu's (American Journal of Sociology 58, 1952 and 34) work, this study employed semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with 59 Chinese international students and visiting scholars to investigate how their plans to return to China might shape their acculturation experiences in the United States (US). Those interviewed expressed a range of plans, including an immediate return to China, a postponed return, an undecided return and a clear refusal to return. Except for Chinese visiting scholars who were determined sojourners, a majority of the students interviewed regularly negotiated and adjusted their decisions to return based on their experiences in the US. By further exploring the post‐migration experiences of those who expressed some intention to sojourn, this study identifies four types of sojourning mentality, including (1) exploratory, (2) pragmatic, (3) disillusioned and (4) detached. Each type was found to distinctively influence and interplay students' experiences with acculturation and acculturative stress.","PeriodicalId":48011,"journal":{"name":"International Migration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Migration","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13236","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"DEMOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Drawing upon the conceptual framework of ‘the sojourner’ in Siu's (American Journal of Sociology 58, 1952 and 34) work, this study employed semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with 59 Chinese international students and visiting scholars to investigate how their plans to return to China might shape their acculturation experiences in the United States (US). Those interviewed expressed a range of plans, including an immediate return to China, a postponed return, an undecided return and a clear refusal to return. Except for Chinese visiting scholars who were determined sojourners, a majority of the students interviewed regularly negotiated and adjusted their decisions to return based on their experiences in the US. By further exploring the post‐migration experiences of those who expressed some intention to sojourn, this study identifies four types of sojourning mentality, including (1) exploratory, (2) pragmatic, (3) disillusioned and (4) detached. Each type was found to distinctively influence and interplay students' experiences with acculturation and acculturative stress.
期刊介绍:
International Migration is a refereed, policy oriented journal on migration issues as analysed by demographers, economists, sociologists, political scientists and other social scientists from all parts of the world. It covers the entire field of policy relevance in international migration, giving attention not only to a breadth of topics reflective of policy concerns, but also attention to coverage of all regions of the world and to comparative policy.