“I wonder how many Asians in expensive cars get pulled over daily in Iowa City?”
“Seriously 90 percent of Asians don’t know how to open a door or even hand your id to the person at the register for lunch”
“Why are all the Chinese students always sleeping in the library? Do they ever study?”
Comments like these are all too common online and on campus at the University of Iowa, and at universities across the United States. These overly aggressive and negative attitudes come at the heels of the largest influx of Chinese students at American universities in history, a trend that only appears to be increasing.
Domestic students may ignoreChinese students out of fear or ignorance rather than snobbery. They often see Chinese students as a group living decadently off their newly affluent parents’ money. However, this stereotype overlooks the fact that today’s Chinese students abroad are far more diverse – economically, intellectually, geographically and personally – than those who have come before.
Over the course of interviewing Chinese students across majors and classes, we have found that many are conscientious and high achieving. Most care a great deal about getting a good education and doing well. And while some have conventional outlooks and ambitions, among others there is no lack of idealism, curiosity and critical thinking. Motivations for coming to the U.S. are varied: some are seeking personal freedom, some a better quality of education and hopes for more mobility, many a combination, and some don’t know. A lot come just because their parents want them to. Some are academically ill prepared; some are brilliant in all respects. Certainly, there is that minority who drive BMWs or Maseratis, those who collect Louis Vuitton satchels or Roger Vivier flats, some spoiled ones who can’t cook or do their own laundry and have no idea what they are in school for; but most are modest strivers struggling to grow up in an unfamiliar environment, and each one is an individual.
Universities across the U.S., no less at Iowa, have intensely recruited undergraduates from China over the past decade. Chinese students now make up 31 percent of the roughly 0.9 million of international students in the U.S. Last year, Chinese students contributed $8.04 billion to the U.S. economy, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. About 40 percent of them are undergraduates who pay twice or third times that in-state tuitions.
This growth hasn’t gone unnoticed by American students, and many American students don’t see Chinese students as their peers, classmates, or friends. Rather many are viewed merely as foreign entities where interactions start and end in the lecture hall. However difficult it may be to speak for more than 2,500 Chinese students on the University of Iowa campus, let alone thousands more at other universities, the divide between Chinese and Americans on campus goes both ways. Chinese students who form cliques, domestic students who lack curiosity and empathy in building international friendships and the universities that fails to bridge the gap are all part of the problem.
Reporting on the varied results and repercussions of this influx of Chinese students to America, we have noticed the paradoxes of the heavily promoted harmonious diversity at universities across the nation. Missing from these narratives are the misconceptions, misunderstandings, and structural and habitual barriers that tend to divide foreign and domestic students.
Many students and university administrators think such separation is fine, as long as explicit conflicts between groups don’t flare up. However, when real antagonisms are dealt, the administration does not know how to appropriately respond. Recently at the University of Iowa, Chinese students found photos of them posted on Twitter with derogatory statements underneath. The administration fumbled the situation, only assuring the Chinese students that they were welcomed on campus, but not specifying how they would protect and support their time on campus.
While international students are encouraged to get involved in activities and learn about American culture, domestic students aren’t necessarily educated to be globally-minded and respect people from other countries. On top of that, the institution falls behind with development and provision of meaningful opportunities for conscious cross-cultural interaction and growth among all students.
Chinese students are artificially separated by the time they set foot on American soil. Often unable to secure a room in a dormitory, due to both the lack of space and the slower application process, more often than not Chinese students are shuffled into temporary housing only to move off campus as soon as possible. Then Chinese students must take 15 credit hours of English as a second language classes, often in an entirely Chinese environment during their first year in the United States. While domestic students are taking rhetoric and principles of biology, their Chinese peers are dissecting proper speaking techniques and grammar. Most college students make their most important interpersonal relationships and friendships in the first year on campus, and with these simple barriers most Chinese and American students don’t find the opportunity to form any meaningful bonds with each other.
Universities don’t take a proactive approach to helping bring communities on campus closer together, only when hateful videos go viral do administrations seem to respond publically to rampant intolerance.
College communities are inching slowly closer to solutions. At the University of Iowa, programs intended to help international students become more integrated in campus life are beginning to take root, often spearheaded by student leaders themselves. Students who feel they must do more to help and connect with Chinese students. However, solutions, mutual understanding, and friendship can’t happen without more active institutional support.
The challenges and quandaries facing Chinese students at Iowa have many causes, of course, and solutions lie with all involved. We hope Chinese students in the future will arrive better prepared both mentally and academically to engage and enjoy college life and gain an education worth the money their parents pay. We encourage U.S. students to become more curious and open-minded, taking advantage of the proliferating international resources and global connections all around them.
We hope this university—and others facing similar circumstances—will come to practice and exhibit genuine concern for its international students that goes far beyond the revenue they generate, integrating its students in a more meaningful and cautious way to achieve real internationalization.
