“You are not the same” — experiences of socio-cultural adaptation of international students
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Abstract
International students face numerous socio-cultural and academic challenges in their country of studying. The paper deals with the impact of the international studying experience on changing different aspects of international students’ lives. It relies on the results obtained within the IS-MIGaIN project, both via quantitative and qualitative methods. The aim of the research is to investigate the attitudes and experiences by international students in terms of whether and to what extent the migration experience has influenced the (re)construction of their personal and socio-cultural identity, in their own subjective perception. For the data analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, as well as thematic analysis via the MAXQDA 2024 program have been used. The experiences of change during studying abroad have been presented from the perspective of international students in Serbia and students from Serbia who either studied or are still studying abroad. The results indicate that there are complex and versatile experiences of transformation in different aspects of personality and life of international students, during the process of adaptation to the academic and socio-cultural framework of the society and state in which they study. A conclusion may be drawn that international students do recognise how much and in what way they have changed through interaction with new environment, and they mainly accept these changes and assess them as positive and useful.
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