International students' experiences of living temporarily abroad: Sense of belonging toward community well-being

Abstract

This article unveils the voices of the international students of the Universiti Sains Malaysia by exploring their belongingness and community well-being in Malaysia. This study was conducted with 14 international students (seven males and seven females) studying at the Universiti Sains Malaysia for at least a year. A qualitative approach was employed using in-depth case interviews to examine the socio-cultural challenges they experienced while studying abroad. The specific challenges reported among the international students are their well-being in distinct aspects such as physical, mental, and emotional. This study seeks to explore the international students' reliability on conational communities for social support. When achieving belongingness with their conational friends, international students can flourish well in their current community in Malaysia, thus achieving social community well-being although they are far away. Besides maintaining established close friendships, the international students develop a sense of comfort and familiarity by forming new friendships with conational and other international students. Sharing similar backgrounds and nationalities, as well as experiences and struggles, are significant for international students in maintaining close friendships and situational harmony. This study highlighted the meaning behind physical and emotional distance, as well as the situation of “being temporarily abroad” and its relations to intimacy practices and belongingness in close friendships. The results presented in this article contribute to an increasing understanding of international students' challenges and the future of social harmony and community well-being while temporarily living in Malaysia. Correspondingly, as a result of this study, students will be more deferential of cultural differences and cross-cultural sensitivity, which will also help to decrease prejudice and discrimination.