The number of foreign students studying in domestic higher educational institutes in South Korea exceeded 49,000 in 2007. One of reason the number of foreign students rapidly increased is that the Korean government is actively involved in attracting f...
The number of foreign students studying in domestic higher educational institutes in South Korea exceeded 49,000 in 2007. One of reason the number of foreign students rapidly increased is that the Korean government is actively involved in attracting foreign students as the number of student studying abroad increased world-widely. One reason to pay attention to the rapid expansion of foreign students is that the impact of them on local community also becomes greater as their proportion increases. Under this circumstance, considerable discussions concerning them from several aspects have been undertaken. However, most of researches are limited to partial aspects of either strategy to attract foreign students or their academic and cultural adaptation
The perspective to look into the causes of foreign students’ migration and adaptation process in more integrative way also seems to be significant in examining their whole process of migration. Therefore, this study selects universities in Daegu and Gyeongbuk area and intends to analyze the migration causes, to figure out the characteristics of their spatial distribution, to examine their adaptational patterns and finally to suggest some measures for them.
In order to examine foreign students’ international migration, causes for the migration analyzed first. The causes can be examined on 3 dimensions, which are the global dimension, the national dimension, and the individual-behavioral dimension. The international migration of foreign students can be seen as a phenomenon which is not caused by a single dimension but by interactions of the macro level of situational dimension and the individual level of behavioral dimension.
In addition, adaptation to the migrated country is analyzed to examine two aspects of their satisfaction in everyday life in local community after their international migration. The environment for their adaptation within their university after their migration consisted of supports from their university, class/research activities and interchange activities. Their adaptation to local community outside the campus was also classified into welfare activities, survival activities, and social activities in their local community.
The study results based on these are summarized as follows:
Firstly, as for foreign students’ spatial distribution, Seoul and its surrounding area was where foreign students are most frequently located at the early stage of their migration. However, the distributional concentration in Seoul has been loosened afterwards, which can be seem as a result of active promotional effort of the universities in other areas to attract foreign students in order to overcome the difficulty in securing their quorum.
Secondly, the questionnaire survey results show that the macro level of push-out/pull-in factors has a greater impact on foreign students’ migration than the micro level of them. That is, foreign students perceive that they are more influenced by the individual motivation factors they are aware of. Although the macro level of push-out/pull-in factors may, in fact, unconsciously influence on them, they seem not perceived as high as it may be.
Thirdly, the adaptation patterns across each dimension show individual differences. In particular, the foreign students who have a higher Korean language ability and more Korean friends show a better adaptation to university and local community. In addition, the results show that those with higher adaptation level to the life of study abroad and local community have a higher level of perceived identity as a member of their local community, through which a contribution of those foreign students with higher identity as a community member to the development of the local community may be anticipated.
Based on these results, the measures and suggestions concerning foreign students’ migration and adaptation are as follows:
During the migration process of foreign students, they are suffering from lack of information and a high agency cost. Most of governmental promotions are limited to such uniformed manner as presentation of universities through studying-sbroad fair. Various and comprehensive informations that meet their practical needs should be provided for them. In addition, promotional strategies to provide information focusing on successful cases in studying abroad are also required. As for the institutes for studying-abroad or agencies, introduction of certification system for excellent institutes or authorization system for agencies should be considered. Based on the farsighted viewpoint that foreign students are perceived as a member of the local community and deviated from the shortsighted viewpoint to regard foreign students as short-term staying migrants, institutional devices should be complemented. In addition, based on the knowledge of the causes for foreign students’ migration, measures to utilize their professional manpower in domestic industries should be complemented, for which visa transference to support their employment is required.
In order to increase their adaptation level to local community, foreign students in Korea have to acquire adequate knowledge of their local community. As a measure for this, universities need to open classes of local history, geography, and culture for foreign students and help them have adequate understanding of their local community. The local community as well as the government or the university also has to care the foreign students. Events such as multicultural fair to reduce prejudice of domestic residents against foreign students may be held to help domestic residents appropriately understand foreign students. In addition, the local community has to establish the environment which accepts the foreign students as a member of their local community and encourages their spontaneous participation.
Although the impact of foreign students on local community has been little since Korea is at the early stage of foreign student inflow, it is anticipated that their impact on local community or their contacts with local residents will increase as the number of foreign students rapidly grows. In a preparation for this situation, the results of this study, as suggestions in the causes for foreign student inflow and their adaptational characteristics to local community, are expected to provide basic data for local community, government, and universities in attracting and supporting foreign students. Future researches may study more specific change patterns of local community arising from the assimilation and conflict process of foreign students after their settlement in the community.
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