Colorblind Racial Ideology, Sense of Belonging, and Racism-Related Stress in Asian Indian International Students

Abstract

International students are an essential part of higher education institutions in the U.S.A., bringing diversity to the educational environment and enhancing the economy. Asian Indian students comprise around 17.3% of all international students, and this population faces a range of unique stressors, with racial and ethnic discrimination being one that is understudied. In the present study, 192 Asian Indian international students completed a survey to understand how colorblind racial ideology and sense of belonging impacted their racism-related stress. We also examined this relationship based on gender and level of education. Our results suggest that colorblind racial ideology, sense of belonging, gender, and level of education significantly explained 32.3% of the variance in racism-related stress. In general, students who identified as women and undergraduate students (versus graduate students) reported higher levels of racism-related stress. Our findings suggests that in addition to the acculturation barriers international students face, Asian Indian international students deal with barriers related to racism. These findings have implications for educators and counselors in higher education institutions that Asian Indian international students have multifaceted identities that impact how they interpret racism.