Duality of Persistence

Abstract

International students have been a growing presence in U.S. higher education institutions for over a decade. However, how feelings of belonging shape their adjustment to these institutions has only recently become a subject of inquiry. In particular, there has been limited examination of how university-level factors interact with feelings of belonging to shape the persistence of international students within the U.S. This research takes a step towards addressing this scholarship gap by examining how social and academic belonging interact with the presence of on-campus co-nationals in engendering aspirations to persist in the U.S. after graduation for international graduate students. We demonstrate the presence of, what we call, an academic enclave effect wherein large communities of co-nationals have a positive influence on the aspirations of international students with initial low levels of social belonging.