Settling In Palmerston North and Feilding - Human Rights Commission

3.11 INTERNATIONAL STUDENTSCommunity Voices‘Younger NZ kids tend to cause the racism – especially young males in cars – the teacher had a nasty experience recently’‘I want to join in with New Zealanders but I want to keep my Malaysian culture, it’s important to me and people say “you should leave allthat culture where you came from, it’s not important here” – I don’t want to’‘Sometimes insurance refuse even 3rd party insurance because we are Asian, driving with no insurance at all, very hard to getinsurance’‘We take our CVs and then because we are not the ethnicity of that business we are not even given an interview.’‘Limited period of Doctor service hours. Free health services on campus for students usually are not available after 5 on weekdays andon the weekends’From focus groups April/May 2009IntroductionThere are around 3000 international tertiary students living and studying in Palmerston North (3700–4000 counting their families). Most ofthese students are studying at Massey, UCOL or IPC. There is a reasonable degree of help available to international students studying in NewZealand. Prior to arrival, institutions provide information to interested students and their families, and Education New Zealand 38 has a websitewith a wide range of information about New Zealand to help students choose a study location and to assist with settlement once they arrive(newzealandeducated.com). Additionally, all education providers with international students are required to meet the standards set out in theCode of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students. Education New Zealand provides tertiary institutions with a comprehensive‘guide for staff ‘on supporting international students. This includes information on cross-cultural communications and orientation matters.Ideally, these processes should ensure an initial level of support enabling students to have some familiarity with their new community, to locateessential services and to undertake their study programme. However, focus group work and consultation with tertiary and service providers hasidentified that, beyond this, a number of issues arise for these students and their families, particularly in relation to building connections withinthe wider community, accessing health services and overcoming issues of isolation and loneliness. Students with families have additionalpressures around accommodation, cost of living and arising health issues (such as pregnancy).As noted earlier, although many of these students may not remain in New Zealand beyond their study, for the time that here they are temporarymigrants, sometimes for extensive periods of time (PhD students are here for three to five years). While here, they experience the same issuesas many other migrants and have similar interactions with the local community and its services and resources.Key Issues 39Connecting with the Wider CommunityLike many newcomers, international students often experience considerable culture shock and loneliness upon arrival in New Zealand andmay struggle to build meaningful connections within their new community over the long term. There is a reasonable amount of international andNew Zealand research literature on this topic. A 2007 research report on the experiences of international students in New Zealand (Ministry ofEducation, 2007) 40 suggests that more can be done to improve the level of contact between international and domestic students, with a largeproportion of international students wanting more New Zealand friends and contact with New Zealanders in general. A further study on theexperiences of Chinese international students (Ho, Li, Cooper & Holmes, 2007) 41 found that friendships and intercultural communication withNew Zealanders prove difficult because of language and cultural differences. It also reports that the Chinese students surveyed had limitedknowledge of services, nor did they participate in the wider community. These same issues appear to arise for international students frommany backgrounds, with anecdotal reports that specific ethnicities tend to stick together, both on campus and beyond. Research conducted bythe Asia New Zealand Foundation on Engaging Asian Communities in New Zealand 42 (McGrath, Butcher, Pickering & Smith, 2005) reachesa number of interesting conclusions about success factors and social cohesion, specifically in relation to feelings of belonging, participation,inclusion, recognition and legitimacy (see appendix 5 for details). Further research identified that sports clubs and churches provide veryimportant means of newcomers making community connections. 43 Feedback from each of the international student focus groups highlightedloneliness and isolation as difficulties that they experienced.SETTLING IN PALMERSTON NORTH AND FEILDING38Education New Zealand is a not-for-profit charitable trust set up to support the New Zealand exporteducation industry, and to promote New Zealand’s education services offshore. Education New Zealandis recognised as the umbrella industry body for education exporters in New Zealand. It is governed byan independent Chairperson and Board of Trustees, elected by an electoral college of New Zealandinstitutions, all signatories to the Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students inNew Zealand.39Identified through focus groups, discussion with service and tertiary providers and relevant research.40Ministry of Education (2007) Experiences of International Students in New Zealand: Report 2007 onthe results of the National Survey, Ministry of Education, Wellington.41Ho, ES, WW Li, J Cooper and P Holmes (2007) The Experiences of Chinese International Students inNew Zealand, University of Waikato, Hamilton.42McGrath, T, A Butcher, J Pickering and H Smith (2005) Engaging Asian communities in New Zealand,Asia New Zealand Foundation, Wellington.43McGrath, TM and A Butcher (2004) Campus-Community Linkages in the Pastoral Care of InternationalStudents with specific reference to Palmerston North, Wellington and Christchurch, for the Ministry ofEducation and Education New Zealand, Wellington.Ward, C and A-M Masgoret (2004) The Experiences of International Students in New Zealand: Reporton the results of the National Survey, Ministry of Education, Wellington.67