Motives, Means, and Belonging in a Strange Land: Female International Students Navigating a Racially and Ethnically Homogeneous Korean Society

Abstract

Using Mandelbaum’s (1973) life history analysis framework, this study analyzed the intersection of female experience, social wellbeing, gender role, and the cost of migration as a female international student in an ethnically homogenous and ethnical nationalist host country, South Korea. A cross-cultural comparison also followed to understand factors affecting belongingness and the ability to incorporate. As a result, immigrant life course dimensions are affected by extremities of cultural nearness or distance, cultural fluency or disfluency, positive cultural experience, intense ethnic and cultural contact, and the existence of a diaspora. The emigration to Korea and structural systems significantly turn the female immigrants’ course of life. Adaptation and belongingness are also affected by a desire for an abundant “Korean” cultural experience, rare cultural contact, code-switching, or indifference for a cultural experience. A comparative look at the experiences also produced common and different patterns based on the cultural origin of the students. Overall, the distinct ethnic characteristics of Korea as a host not only created a demanding assimilation (a strong pull to Korean ethnic identity assumed roles) but it also brought a unique and transforming female and belongingness experience. As migration may redirect or reward female gender roles, this study points to a proper discussion to understand the relativity of female experience within a distinctive and culturally demanding host country.

1. Introduction

Recently, South Korea (hereafter Korea) become an important hub for international students from nearby countries and elsewhere. Korean universities have successfully attracted international students amid a decline in the Korean school-age population, where birth rates have fallen below 1. The country’s education system uses less English language as medium of instruction [1]. Nevertheless, universities attracting foreign students from culturally distant countries is the new normal for the country. According to the Korean Ministry of Education, in 2019 alone, the country received 160,165 international students, out of which 92,030 are female students [2]. More than 85% of the population of the international students are from geographically and culturally near countries such as China, Vietnam, Mongolia, and Japan. The rest, though few in percentage, are from different countries which find Korea an ideal place for higher education and an attractive destination for work after graduation [2].

As migrants of all types, international students’ post-migration experiences were investigated in limited socio-economic attributes of adaptation frameworks (e.g., educational attainment, income, language proficiency, etc.). According to Ward and colleagues’ model of adaptation, adaptation is a bi-dimensional phenomenon: sociocultural and psychological [3,4,5]. The first dimension, sociocultural adaptation, refers to the behavioral domain and the efficacy in achieving one’s everyday goals in the new culture. It is acquired in a culture learning process (e.g., culture specific skills, norms, and so on). The second dimension, psychological adaptation, refers to one’s wellbeing within the new culture and is underpinned by the process of coping with the stress of intercultural transition.

Including the unique characteristics of host countries in the discussion of immigrant adaptation has produced an interesting viewpoint of the incorporation process and the experience of immigrants in general. Exacerbating racial identity and difference when policing integration [6], phenotypical similarities preponderating cultural similarities during incorporation [7], segmented recognition of immigrants’ gender role practices [8], and the racial “mismatch” within a predominant race [9] have been reported as impacting the process and the belongingness experience of the immigrant.

In parallel with international student mobility, individual contexts such as gender and cultural background would only bolster previous investigative undertakings. When it comes to international students’ sense of belongingness, higher education scholars provided exceptional discussions from the context of school environments. These discussions highlighted how students experience a sense of belonging and the factors impacting sense of belonging are often associated with the student’s social identity, such as race or gender, or the conditions they encounter on campus [10,11,12]. However, studies about international students’ adaptations and the sense of belongingness to less globalized sociocultural but rather more localized academic environments are absent in recent academic literature. Recent studies also pointed the importance and the need of including sociocultural contexts in these investigations and strongly urged others to address this gap [13,14]. Additionally, socio-economic contexts such as the origin of the student as well as the socio-economic status also arguably contribute an additional insight not only in understanding where the international student stands as a foreigner but in answering the major pull factors in the global international student’s mobility setting. For instance, international students’ migration to Korea could be understood in the framework of seeking a better life in an emerging, strong economy. However, as migrants to a strange land, their gains are surrounded by numerous unaccounted incurred physical and psychological costs. Thus, there is a need to provide evidence for the effects of migration by circling out the characteristics of these “costs” within the life events of international students.

This particular study is not going to reiterate the issues of adaptation. Rather, this study takes advantage of the timing that Korea is inviting more and more international students, and it is entirely interested to understand the intersection of female experience, gender role, belongingness, and the cost of migration as a female international student. Within an overwhelming Korean ethnic predominance and bloodline-based ethnic nationalism [15], societal and structural experiences in the international students’ setting will be the focus of our study. As an initial argument, the study follows Paul Collier’s exposition of the effects of migration. It states that ‘migration occurs because migrants seek a better life for themselves and their families. The gains to immigrants occur because of differences in productivity. The same individuals become more productive—and better paid—when they join better-governed, wealthier societies. Though their gains are sizeable, they may come at a psychological cost—separation from family and dislocation to an alien culture’ [16].

By employing a qualitative narrative inquiry of Mandelbaum’s life history analysis on the life stories of selected female international students in Korea, our study aims to understand what constituted or affected the motives, the means, and the sense of belongingness. The result of the study is thus aiming to contribute to the literature on how the world is interacting when it comes to international students’ mobility, at least in context of international student mobility in Korea. Since the participants in the study are all females, the cross-cultural comparative analysis will also provide a tool to understand the female international students’ experience in Korea. More specifically, this study will ask questions such as how, within the scope of Mandelbaum’s life history analysis framework, is the migration experience of female international students in Korea framed, or what can we learn at the intersection of female experience, gender role, belongingness, and the cost of migration as a female international student in an ethnically homogeneous Korea?

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Mandelbaum’s Life History Analysis Framework as a Method

Within the context of female international students, individual migration experiences are expected to significantly vary unless it is banded in a framework that will draw patterns and cross-cultural comparative points. The comparative cross-cultural analysis is intended to compare the nature of the migration experience and the behavioral changes across the cultures of the female international students. Mandelbaum’s [17] life history analysis framework in this particular study not only provides a guideline for our analysis but it will also allow us to frame the characteristics of the immigrant experience, as well as pinpointing the cross-cultural comparative analysis points among the students. The framework produced a coherent frame of reference to study individual life events by providing a suitable conceptual guideline. These procedural suggestions are analyzing a person’s life events through dimensions, turnings, and adaptation.

Dimensions are aspects of a person’s life or main forces that affect and shape a person’s life. It systematically investigates the biological, cultural, social, and psychosocial aspects that make up the person’s life experience. Turnings are points in life and the living conditions between these turnings. It also demarcates life story snippets by marking the major changes in a person’s life. According to Mandelbaum, turnings are explained as a time when “the person takes on a new set of roles, enters into fresh relations with a new set of people, and acquires a new self-conception”. Adaptation is concerned with how the individual life pattern is altered to establish a new pattern of behaviors that help to cope with new conditions. According to Mandelbaum, most of the time, individuals change their ways “to maintain continuity” in their lives, “whether of group participation or social expectation or self-image or simply belongingness or survival”.

2.2. Qualitative Design

Based on Mandelbaum’s life story analysis framework, a semi-structured interview guide was used to collect data. The interview questions were designed to capture necessary life events within the time frame of before coming to Korea and within their experience as a student. The dimensions or aspects of the participant’s life, any major life turnings and the living conditions between the turnings, and the participant’s characteristic means of belonging or adaptation were mainly extracted within the narratives of the interview data.

2.3. Recruitment Process

Potential female international students who had a Korean higher education experience in various fields were contacted for the study. Through a screening process, the 9 most eligible were finally selected. Eligibility criteria included that the student had to live in Korea for at least 4 years. Each potential participant was informed of the purpose and process of this study, their rights as a participant, and the researchers’ obligations. The necessary ethical considerations were maintained with the Institutional Review Board of Jeonbuk National University’s approval before recruiting the participants and the actual data analysis.

2.4. Study Setting

Five interview sessions per one participant were conducted (a total of 45 interview sessions). Each interview session lasted from 2–3 h. A triangulation technique and informal lunch and dinner meetings were also utilized to learn more about their life stories before coming to Korea. Written data were also collected about what the participants and the investigators considered vital for the study. Participants voluntarily provided a written indication of informed consent and then completed a short survey examining their socio-demographic information. Interviews were conducted in English and Korean language by the principal investigators, who are fluent in Korean and English. All interviews were digitally recorded with permission. The recordings of the interviews were transcribed verbatim and translated into English text documents.

2.5. Data Analysis

The initial task of the data analysis involved immersion in the data as a whole, reviewing, categorizing themes, and analyzing the complete collection of transcripts using HyperRESEARCH v4.0.1 software. Next, we performed an analysis noting recurrent topics and themes and drafting similar snippets of life events that we thought fitting to Mandelbaum’s framework of life event analysis. Within the boundaries of the framework, the data analysis also employed a template analysis. Template analysis is described as a ‘group of techniques for thematically organizing and analyzing textual data’ [18]. It is a well-established qualitative method for exploring people’s experiences [18,19,20]. Data were examined not as exact representations but in a manner of drawing meanings to the participant’s interpretations of their life events and their respective social worlds.

The consensus among the authors was reached when selecting and including the appropriate themes. Throughout the analysis, the authors engaged in discussions on the meanings, interpretation, and overall intellectual understanding of the life events of the participants as well as issues surrounding them. The author’s epistemological perspectives, as well as scholarship standpoints, were utilized throughout the data analysis. All the participants are represented by a number throughout the data analysis.

2.6. Thematic Segregation

Within the data analysis, our study focused on a particular point of emphasis to segregate the data provided by our participants. Then, in the conceptual guidelines of Mandelbaum’s framework, these particular emphasis points were discussed, producing a comparative outlook between our participants’ backgrounds. The emphasis given in discussing the “dimension” conceptual guideline are:

• Cultural: Understanding the cultural dimensions of the participant produces a plethora of information about the participant’s life course and cultural assumptions their respective countries would have. The emphasis is focused on if there is any cultural imposition experienced as a female or international student, how distant is the participant from Korean culture, and the size of the respective participant’s country diaspora within Korea, since size of the diaspora shapes the way latter immigrants function in the society [16].
• Social: Within this dimension, the peculiar cultural feature interpretation of the participant is extracted from the data.
• Psychosocial: In this dimension, the subjective world of the participant, general feelings, attitude, or any relevant experience as a female was extracted.

The emphasis given, or the questions asked in discussing “turning” conceptual guidelines are:

• Is their immigrant experience as an international student a turning point in their lives? Or how is it expressed as a turning point in their lives?
• Any turning may be relatively more ascribed or self-chosen, prescribed or improvised, quick or protracted [17]. Thus, does this apply to our participants?

The emphasis given in discussing the “adaptation” conceptual guideline follows the following rationales:

• Since adaptation is a built-in process, our participants must, in the course of their lives, alter some of their established patterns of behavior to cope with new conditions [17]. Within the data, we check if participants change their ways to maintain continuity, whether by group participation or social expectation or self-image or simply for the sake of belongingness or survival.
• Within the data, we also checked the main opportunities and limitations that the participant faced at each juncture and ask how and why the participant adapted a new behavior (or failed to do so) at this point, what they tried to change and what they tried to maintain.

2.7. Participant Description

Participants’ ages ranged from 24 to 32. They are from 5 different countries, 3 from China, 2 from Mongolia, 2 from Ethiopia, 1 from Bangladesh, and 1 from Ecuador. The rest of the participants’ information is presented in

Table 1. Participant description.

	Participant No.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Age	25–30		o	o	o	o	o	o
	31–35	o							o	o
Country	China	o	o	o
	Mongolia				o	o
	Bangladesh						o
	Ecuador							o
	Ethiopia								o	o
Current level of education	Undergraduate							o
	Masters		o	o	o	o
	Ph.D.	o					o		o	o
Family economic status	Low income				o	o			o	o
	Middle income	o	o	o			o	o
	High income
Means for financial burden	Scholarship					o			o
	Family		o		o			o
	Part-time job	o		o
Accommodation	Studio apartment	o	o	o	o	o	o		o	o
	Dormitory							o
Duration of stay in Korea (years)	3–6		o	o			o	o	o	o
	7–12	o			o	o
Korean language level of fluency	Beginner		o				o		o
	Medium							o
	Advanced	o			o	o
Marital status	Married				o		o		o	o
	Single	o	o	o		o		o

.

2.8. Background of the Participant’s Country of Origin

• China: The biggest international student population in Korea is from China [2]. Chinese families also appear to afford educational expenses or opt to send their children for higher education in Korea [21]. The affordability of tuition or the no entry exam policy of most Korean universities and the higher possibility of graduation are mentioned as the reasons for the student’s pull.
• Mongolia: In Mongolia, there is also a trend of coming to Korea for higher education. Though the move is expensive, the popular destination for international students is Korea. Besides, the biggest Mongolian diaspora population in the world is in Korea and the most popular foreign language to study in Mongolia is Korean [22,23].
• Bangladesh: The existence of a significant number of Bangladeshi diaspora in Korea creates a meaningful cultural point of contact for any Bangladeshi immigrant. The cultural impositions on food and females create a wide cultural difference with Korea. Due to cultural, especially religious, constraints, a woman’s status and position are highly dependent on education, income, assets, health, and the role she can play in the family and society [24,25].
• Ecuador: There is a cultural and geographical distance between Korea and Ecuador, which creates the rarity of cultural contact. Most Ecuadorians in Korea came to study. Ecuadorians in Korea have an affinity with other Spanish-speaking immigrants, and their sense of community as immigrants to Korea is mostly bound with other immigrants from Latin American countries [26].
• Ethiopia: The number of Ethiopians living in Korea is relatively few. However, recently, it is becoming an appealing option for students to go for graduate and post-graduate positions in Korean universities. Most Ethiopians come to Korea through Korean government scholarships or other similar university scholarships. The significant number of the Ethiopian diaspora in Korea is international students. The diplomatic relationship between Ethiopia and Korea is also facilitating more students to come to study in Korea [27].

3. Results

3.1. Dimensions: Cultural Nearness or Distance, Cultural Fluency, Cultural Contact, Positive Cultural Experience, and Effect of Diaspora Explaining Dimensions

For our Chinese participants (P1, P2, and P3), being culturally near to Korea created a relatively smooth move. However, all of them mentioned the first few initial cultural contact experiences were thought of as being difficult. For P1, cultural fluency was maintained through her uninterrupted 8 years of stay in the country. For P2 and P3, their cultural fluency was less than P1 because of the shortness of their stay in the country, and it is also interrupted because of their frequent visits to their home country during school breaks. P2 and P3 came to Korean universities because of the relative advantages such as better education in the interested field, no entrance exam, and similarity of Korean culture to China. However, their culture contacts and fluency did not go far beyond adjusting to the Korean higher educational environments within their respective universities. Yet, P1 maintained a well-versed cultural fluency and grew fonder of the Korean way of life; she worries her Korean way of cultural fluency is making a distance with her originally assumed norms. She mentioned she already passed her marriageable age according to Chinese culture, and she had to negotiate with her family’s cultural expectations.

Our Mongolian participants, P4 and P5, have a relatively longer duration of stay than the rest of the participants (12 and 10 years, respectively). Both mentioned their uninterrupted stay in Korea gave them a well-versed cultural fluency. P4 came to Korea when she was 16 years old. Her experience from late adolescence to early adulthood in Korea created a personality trait that resembles typical Korean characteristics. She mentioned she sometimes feels foreign and has difficulties communicating or understanding her fellow Mongolians. P5 moved to Korea following her older sister who was working in Korea at that time. Her initial settlement experience was based on every prior experience of her sister. Both mentioned there are no apparent difficulties as a female international student. P5 even mentioned situations are relatively better than it would have been if she was living in Mongolia. P4 mentioned her role as a female or as a married woman is no different than what it would have been. She stated:

In my opinion, I don’t see a difference between women’s roles between Korean and Mongolian culture… We [me and my husband] take an equal role in raising our kid and housework, but I still prefer to clean the house and do the cooking than him… I just do those things better…

P6, our Bangladeshi participant, has minimal cultural contact experience compared to the other Asian participants. She does not speak Korean, since Korean language study is not included in her scholarship program. Unlike the other Asian participants, she was not required to have Korean language proficiency when she started her study. She is grateful for the opportunity of the scholarship. She also attests that having this scholarship has a significant impact on her academic journey, mentioning that there are not many female scholars in her field, which would make her among the elites of her field in her country. Furthermore, she accepts the normality of relatively long hours of laboratory activities as a student, which would however leave her with no time to socialize. She stated:

When I got this fully funded scholarship, I asked some people in my country who already did their Ph.D. about Korea. So, they told me about safety, and it is a kind of good environment for females and, [they told me] there is some work pressure, and you need to work hard and no need to waste time, so I need to work hard.

P6 also understands and feels the relative position of women in Korea; she mentioned the country as “a safe and good environment for women”. The safety and the relative independence have been the two reasons for her to come to Korea. Not only her but the people around her also expressed high esteem for the opportunity she had to move to Korea. She significantly feels the cultural difference when it comes to positions and roles of females in society that made her social life be limited to her lab mates, most of them being foreigners, and the Bangladeshi community around her university. Recently, being married to a fellow Bangladeshi student in her university added different roles other than being a student.

For our Ecuadorian participant, P7, it is not only the cultural distance between her country and Korea but the educational system differences were something she had to adjust to at the beginning of her undergraduate study. Within her 4 years of stay in the country, however, reasonable cultural contact was maintained through personal effort and curiosity to know more about the culture as well as the Korean language. Besides, her cultural contact was fairly enhanced when she worked a part-time job outside the school.

Her experience as a female student in Korea is described as pleasant and safe. She mentioned, as a female, catcalling (or similar types of sexual harassment) was a daily experience in Ecuador. However, she mentioned she is glad that Korean men “don’t act like that” even though similar occasions are ever-present. She explained:

During spring and throughout summer girls in Korea wear very short dresses [even relatively shorter than she used to in Ecuador] but no one care to look and even comment on their dressing. That’s a good thing here in Korea… That makes me feel safe.

Further explaining her experience in Ecuador:

Catcalling on the streets were common, and I frequently experience harassing words if I am wearing something revealing that day. Again, during rush hours when buses are crowded men Frottaging frequently occurs ... It’s just hard even to remember those experiences… I always feel safe here whenever I think about those experiences. That type of harassment will never happen here.

Moreover, P7 mentioned the “machismo” culture with her experience in Ecuador. In Ecuador, a mindset of patriarchal values, attitudes, and beliefs about masculinity is strong, and she mentioned that there is a strong or somehow aggressive masculine pride. She explained:

My father is much younger than my mother, but he runs our house. He is the loudest in the house, and my mom’s voice is almost non-existent. She [her mom] is sick, and she can’t work anymore, so my dad is the one providing our house and my mom can’t complain about anything.

P7 is also aware of the type of sexual harassment happening in Korea. She remembers hearing the news about the hidden cameras in public female toilets [28]. She mentioned being disgusted and sometimes being afraid of running into those situations. However, according to the experience of P7, not only the relative rarity of sexual harassment on a daily basis made her stay relatively safe but she also feels threatened by the socio-economic instabilities that are recently troubling her country. In addition, she currently feels not only socially stable but also economically stable. As the only downside of her stay, she mentioned that her social contact is mostly with other foreigners in her university, most of them coming from Spanish-speaking Latin American countries. Though, she mentioned being lonely sometimes.

Our Ethiopian participants, P8 and P9, are and feel they are culturally distant to Korea. P8 moved to Korea to join her husband, who is already studying in Korea. She does not speak Korean and feels she is being dependent on her husband to get by. She goes to a university where all the subjects are taught in English with mostly foreign students. She mentioned that, even if she is in Korea, she mostly feels she is not in Korea because of the rare or almost absent social contact. She explained:

There are moments that I forget that I am in Korea even though I am here physically… it’s when I go outside that I realize I am indeed in Korea… these moments are frequent.

The most P8 felt she was contacting Korean culture was when she studied short-term language training. Moreover, being a social person herself, she mentioned the absence or weak social relationships in Korea bother her. So, apart from very limited contact with her Korean colleagues in her university, almost all her social contact is limited to a few Ethiopians and other foreigners in her church.

P9 also feels she is culturally distant to Korea. She came to Korea to work and study at the same time. She is working in an institution that needed her professional expertise, and she communicates in English with her colleagues and supervisors. Since she does not speak any Korean, she was dependent on her supervisors (people who invited her) when she first settled. She is recently married to an Ethiopian who is also working in Korea, and they are expecting a child. When her pregnancy is due, she is planning to go to Ethiopia to have the child and stay with her family for some time. She mentioned:

It’s better for me to be with my family when I gave birth to my child. I don’t know how we [her and her husband] will manage if I gave birth here… Who would care for me after that? So, we decided to travel back home and stay with family, at least for some time.

Just like P8, P9 also has very limited social contact with her Korean colleagues; almost all her social contact is limited to a few Ethiopians in her city.

3.2. Turning

For our Chinese participants, though the move to Korea gave them a different experience, cultural and geographical nearness creates a mild turning. P1 and P2 mentioned the similarity of culture between China and Korea that, in turn, created a sense of familiarity with their surroundings. However, P1 mentioned her experience in Korea as a major turning point in the sense that, had she not moved to Korea for her studies, she would have had a different type of life by now. She explained:

My family would have expected me to get married by now. I am already late for marriage by Chinese standards. So, if I was in China by now, I would have been married and probably have a child.

For our Chinese participants, life turning experiences occurred mostly with consequent personal decisions in how they want to live their lives in Korea. P1’s experience involved an abrupt decision to continue her Master’s as she finished her undergraduate, creating a quick and major life turn. P1, hoping for a teaching position in Chinese universities, continued to pursue higher education after her Master’s study. She attributes her feeling of independence in decision making and self-sufficiency as a result of her 8-year experience outside of her family.

For P2, her experience and life decisions after moving to Korea only created a mild and protracted turning point in her life. She mentioned she learned “new things” as she described them as personal qualities, such as self-confidence, a deeper outlook and value to life, and developing patience and strong will, all as a by-product of her experience as a university student.

On the other hand, P3’s experience in Korea created a very weak and insignificant turning point in her life. She still mentions having a strong relationship with family and friends back home. In addition, she frequently travels back home and the sense of being away from her roots is non-existent.

For our Mongolian participants, the move to Korea for higher education could be considered an ascribed Mongolian trend that has the potential to turn a Mongolian student’s life. It is confirmed from our participants that it is a common trend for financially able families to send their child to Korea, and most Mongolian students will probably seize any opportunity to move to Korea.

For P4, her father created the opportunity for her to move to a Korean high school. She mentioned her move to Korea was “a life-changing opportunity”. She added:

I wouldn’t even continue my studies up to masters if I remained in Mongolia. I would probably go to college and be working some average job...

Especially for P4, the move was a major turning point in her life. Since she spent most of her life in Korea, her personality and way of thinking resembles many Korean values and way of thinking. Her marriage, to a Mongolian husband, while being a Master’s student and having a baby in their first year of her marriage has also changed her life paradigm. When explaining her early child-caring experience, she mentioned she consulted with other similar Korean mothers and day-care owners on how to care for her child. This experience entailed a culturally different maternal experience had she been raising her child in Mongolia.

P5 explained how her move to Korea turned her life:

It is like starting my life all over again. I don’t think I would have lived this life if I didn’t come to Korea. I feel like I grew up here and most of the things I know are from here [Korea]…within 10 years I went back home [Mongolia] for only a week, and I am sure these past 10 years have changed me and I might be a stranger to my own country.

For P5, her move is an ascribed one, in the sense that her older sister opened the opportunity for her to come to Korea. It is also self-chosen as she gladly accepted the offer to come to Korea, mentioning how big an opportunity it is to move to Korea and how lucky she is having this chance.

Similarly, in Bangladesh, international studentship in Korea is valued and considered a major turning in the student’s life. For P6, her international studentship could be considered a culturally prescribed turning point in her life because she and those around her in Bangladesh were anticipating her move outside of Bangladesh since it is common among students like her to search for scholarships in other countries. Minor mild life turnings such as the change of lifestyle, the feeling of safety, and being financially independent is mentioned with her move to Korea. In addition, being married to a fellow Bangladeshi student not only added a role as a wife but also created a home that mostly reminded a Bangladeshi household.

Due to the cultural and geographical distance from Korea to Ecuador and Ethiopia, the move to Korea alone could create a major life turning. For instance, since Korea is not an ideal place for Ecuadorian students to move normally, encouraged by scholarship opportunities, P7’s move to Korea is self-chosen and a major life turning point. P7 mentioned that the need to move to Korea, or anywhere for that matter, was something she needed and her decision to move was quick one, resulting in a quick life turning point. Regarding her experience, she mentioned:

I was studying my first year but for financial reasons, I couldn’t continue. So, I received an email from the Ecuador embassy here in Korea about some scholarships. It just happened this university has a scholarship for my program. So, it [moving to Korea] happened so fast.

However, based on P7’s experience up to now, considering her limited cultural contact, her lived experience is a mild turning point in her life. If she wished to build on her Korean experience up to now, her future experience would have yielded a major life turning experience. However, she mentioned she may be traveling to another country to pursue her Master’s and maybe find employment in her field. Regarding her decision, she mentioned:

... I want to go to another country for my masters… but I’m not still sure… I feel there is not much I can do here as a foreigner… I cannot speak Korean fluently. And if I am working as a nutritionist, I need to talk with patients or with a team. So, if I don’t improve my Korean, I don’t think I can’t do anything here as a foreigner.

For the Ethiopian participants, the move to Korea created a complete change of lifestyle. For P8, the move was ascribed because she first came to Korea to visit her husband who was already studying his Master’s. However, when her husband later decided to continue his graduate studies, she also decided to stay and study. Although unexpected for the most part, her move proved to turn her life in a different direction. It could also be called an improvised turn in the sense that it is not necessarily the move that turns her life but the family decision she made with her husband.

For P9, the move to Korea could have produced a life turning in some part. She mentioned that the move by itself is a different experience but does not amount to a life turning event. From the beginning, the plan for her to stay in Korea is scheduled for a short period, and she has the understanding that when that time is over, she will be moving elsewhere. Within her experience, for 4 years, her insignificant or very few cultural contacts as an international student and worker made her experience less powerful that is not enough to create a major life turning experience. She explained:

The only time I know if I am in Korea is if I just think about it… of course, I don’t ignore or forget the fact that I am living here, but I don’t think I have the chance to be exposed to most of it. The work environment does not create the opportunity to have more “Korean” experience and the school has been also the same… I go there once a week. I don’t speak the language and for the most part, I feel I don’t belong here if it wasn’t for the work and school.

3.3. Adaptation: Desire for an Abundant Cultural Experience, the Rarity of Cultural Contact and “Code-Switching to Belong/Survive”

The participants’ adaptation could depend on the amount of desire for an extra cultural experience or longer stay in the country after they finished their study. This “desire”, as a particular theme, emerged in the analysis of our participants’ adaptation. This particular desire creates the opportunity for these international students to engage in what Mandelbaum mentioned as a “built-in process” type of adaptation [17]. For instance, the desire to remain in the country would stir the need for cultural fluency, such as learning Korean, and probably necessitates change or adjustment to normally held cultural and behavioral patterns.

As a common denominator, for our Chinese participants, the reason they needed to adapt to Korea at least for the time of their studentship is related to having a better educational experience that would later be better utilized in the Chinese job market. Because of the economic opportunities still existing in China, students are reluctant to remain in Korea after graduation. In turn, it is resulting in a relatively mild adaptation.

P1 hardly integrated in her first two years. She mentioned having difficulties communicating, which created difficulties for adaptation. Her effort to adapt formally started when she joined the Master’s program. Her dream of becoming a professor in Chinese universities necessitated a strong need to acquire the qualities of accomplished student life in Korea. What set her apart from the other Chinese participants is her desire to stay longer in the country and her need to adapt more so that she can pull through the rest of her program.

P2 and P3 mentioned the language barrier from the beginning that forced them to engage less in their Korean life. P2 mentioned:

The language barrier [difficulty] made my experience difficult from the beginning. With my master’s study, it was impossible to have extra time to study the language… I know some Korean before coming here, but I soon realized that my level of Korean is not sufficient enough… Because of that, my stay was stressful, and I had no Korean friends other than my classmates.

P2 also mentioned being dependent on her more Korean fluent Chinese friends to carry on through her studies. Her dependence on her Chinese friends, in turn, also created a Chinese experience only as she only socializes with her Chinese friends. She mentioned having frequent home get-together programs with her Chinese friends, in which she developed a hobby of cooking Chinese foods when her friends come over. This particular experience will affect her Korean adaptation in the sense that it has enabled P2 to stay connected to her Chinese experience even though she is living in Korea.

In the case of P3, her adaptation efforts are limited to school activities and exhibit less enthusiasm or inability to develop further adaptive qualities. However, her engagement in the part-time job outside the university is recently demanding her to learn about the Korean way of doing things and learning more Korean than she already knows.

An interesting case of adaptation is the case of Mongolian participants. Both expressed their desire to stay in Korea. Within their length of stay, one can understand that there is an ample amount of successful acculturation experience [29]. Coinciding with them having the desire to stay in the country, adaptation traits they developed throughout their time included a code-switching ability between Mongolian and Korean cultures. They are considered fluent in their Korean language proficiency and relatively more adapted than all our participants. Their code-switching ability, in the sense that they can modify their original behavior, appearance, etc., to adapt to typical Korean sociocultural norms, is something that sets them apart from the other participants.

In the case of P4, her move to Korea at a young age created the opportunity to learn and fully integrate knowledge of the culture. Her Korean ability is impeccable, with great ability to switch between her Mongolian self and newly created Korean identity. Living with her Mongolian husband helps maintain her Mongolian roots. However, she still mentioned her cultural distance from Mongolia as her husband also frequently speaks to her in Korean, implying that her husband also code-switches. She mentioned:

He [my husband] speaks good Korean. And most of the time we mix Korean and Mongolian when talked… It’s becoming a natural thing for both of us now… but we are now teaching our firstborn [4 years old girl] how to speak Mongolian. She understands simple commands in Mongolian, but we need to speak more Mongolian for her sake.

P4 once felt a ‘stranger’ in her own country when she went back for a visit. She explained:

It was hard for me to understand what my friends were talking about. I met them for a very long time and I felt a big difference in the way we think. Even when I was in Mongolia, I was more comfortable with Koreans than my friends… That’s the kind of change I experienced within these 12 years.

For P5, code-switching between her Mongolian self and Korean acquired self is not a matter of choice for her. It is rather a matter of necessity. She explained:

Knowing the language [Korean] is the only way one survives the daily life and school life. On top of everything, I don’t even have that much of Mongolian friends to converse with… The language just grew in me. The more I spoke the language, the more things became easier for me. I think schoolwork [especially graduate school] would have been almost impossible to attend without a certain level of Korean understanding.

P5’s tight uninterrupted “Korean” experience since she was 18 years old not only created a personality that resembles an average Korean, but it also created unmistakable distance from her roots. She mentioned:

I don’t remember the last time I had Mongolian food. I don’t even remember trying to make them at home… I think I eat Mongolian food once or twice a year… It just happens I usually find myself making Kimchi jjigae [Korean kimchi soup] whenever I cook. And I think through the time I get used to preparing Korean foods at home.

P6 continued maintaining her original self by staying connected to her cultural identity. Being married to a fellow Bangladeshi also created a home that constantly reminds her of her roots. She explained:

I still cook Bangladesh food at home. I still get some rare ingredients from Bangladeshi people who are importing them to Korea… I used to eat lunch [Korean food] at the university before I got married, but now we cook [Bangladesh food] at home.

Explaining her overall social connections, she mentioned:

I only know very few Koreans in my four-year stay. I met these Koreans in my lab. I don’t know any Korean outside my lab. So, my perception is from these Koreans I met. They don’t speak English that much, so that’s why they don’t have a very good friendship with the foreigners who are not good at Korean… We [Bangladeshi community in and around her university] meet very often and sometimes organize trips to see some nearby places.

Within the experience of P6, there was an opportunity to learn the Korean language on a deeper level but she was discouraged by her adviser, who told her that she does not need to learn or use Korean for her studies. In this case, her learning Korean would have resulted in different adaptation outcomes.

In the case of P7, her acquisition of the communicative Korean language within a short period, and her enthusiasm to learn more and experience more about the culture enabled her to have a relatively adjusted stay in the country. However, with no plans in the country, her effort to become adapted to the Korean environment will only remain as long as she is in the country. In other words, if she ended her Korean experience now, the chances are she would eventually forget the patterns and changes she had experienced for the past 4 years. Within the past 4 years, however, she managed to learn Korean, with an intermediate level of proficiency, and she was able to finish her undergraduate level studies.

P8 and P9 show similar adaptation patterns. Both mentioned the rarity of cultural contact with Korean culture. Relatively, they are not adapting to the Korean culture, but they are rather adapting to the new life they are having in Korea. For P8, the only Korean cultural contact is through her husband, who is finishing up his Ph.D. studies in typical Korean educational settings. Other than that, she mentioned having a very limited Korean cultural experience. However, P8 still had to adjust to the new life by surrounding herself with other foreigners or fellow Ethiopians that she met through churches and the Ethiopian community in Korea.

Similarly, P9 also had to adapt to a new life in Korea. In her case, her immediate social contacts when she first settled in Korea were her supervisors in her workplace and Ethiopians she met in her city. Her social life outside her workplace is mostly shared with Ethiopians she met in her city. Her cultural adaptation experience was not out of necessity, but it was because of curiosity. From the beginning, she had no requirement of learning Korean for her education. She also works in an environment that does not require her to communicate in Korean. Within this experience that entailed a rarity of potential cultural contact, her adaptation to Korean life is minimal.

3.4. Summary of the Comparative Findings

In

Table 2. Factors affecting the nature of life experience of female international students.

Dimensions	Turnings	Adaptation
Cultural nearness (CN)	Ascribed (AS)	Desire for abundant cultural experience
Cultural distance (CD)	Self-chosen (SC)	Rarity of cultural contact
Cultural fluency (CF)	Prescribed (PS)	Need for code-switching to survive
Positive cultural experience (PCE)	Improvised (IMP)	Indifference for future abundant cultural experience
Effect of diaspora (ED)	Quick (QK)
Cultural disfluency (CDISF)	Protracted (PR)
Cultural contact (CC)	Major (MJ)
Less cultural contact (LCC)	Mild (MI)
	Weak (WK)

Note: The different colors in this table have no special meaning. However, the different color representations are intended to help the reader match the factors affecting the nature of life experience within the comparative analysis in Table 3.

and

Table 3. A comparative analysis of cross-cultural life story for female international students in South Korea.

Country of Origin	Participant	Dimensions					Turning				Adaptation
China	1	CN	CF	CC			SC	IMP	QK	MJ
	2	CN	CDISF				SC	IMP	PR	MI
	3	CN	CDISF		LCC
Mongolia	4	CN	CF	PCE	ED		AS	PS	PR	MJ
	5	CN	CF	PCE	ED		AS	SC	MJ
Bangladesh	6	CD	PCE	ED	CDISF		SC	PS	MI
Ecuador	7	CD	CF	PCE	CC		SC	IMP	QK	MI
Ethiopia	8	CD	ED	CDISF		LCC	AS	IMP	MJ
	9	CD	ED	CDISF		LCC

, the rest of the data analysis is presented. Factors that shaped the migration experience of the participants are first presented within Mandelbaum’s framework. Then a comparative life story analysis is presented by carefully indicating the appearance of the factors in each participants’ migration experience.

4. Discussion

Within the experience of our participants, the ever-mentioned peculiar challenges surrounding international students are present. These are challenging language and cultural differences; acculturative stress and a higher risk of developing mental health problems [30]; difficulties to navigate day-to-day social activities; racial and ethnic frictions [31]; loneliness, isolation, and alienation, lack or absence of support, culture shock, a threat to the sense of identity, financial problems, absence or very limited relationships with native nationals, unfamiliar educational environments, and expectation crises [32,33,34,35,36,37]. These challenges will only be intensified when the student discussed is a female international student. It is reported that, more than male international students, female international students faced more adjustment difficulties within host countries [38]. Inadequacies within host societies are also observed as exacerbating the challenges [39]. If at all, more directly, international female students could be under the influence of the general attitude Koreans have toward foreigners. For instance, although with a great improvement from a previous wave of surveys, according to the 2017–2020 7th wave of the World Values Survey, among 1245 Korean participants, 13% mentioned they do not want people who speak a different language as a neighbor, 15% mentioned they do not want people of a different race as a neighbor, and 22% mentioned they do not want immigrants as their neighbor [40].

On the other hand, the ability to incorporate and the sense of belongingness was studied as a buffer for positive migration experience. For instance, when international students’ needs for belonging are met in their host environments, they show positive emotions, pro-social behavior, academic achievement, future occupational success, life satisfaction, and greater commitment to stay in the country of destination [41,42,43,44].

In more specific university settings, and based on the results of this study, the successful incorporation of female international students is highly dependent on their cultural distance to that of Korea’s. Since knowing the Korean language and familiarity with Korean culture are factors for successful educational experience in the country, cultural nearness and fluency appear to influence the positive experience of international students in general. Participants’ casual or intentional acceptance of the Korean way of gender roles also appear to coincide with successful adaptation to the Korean way of life.

Within the factors that shaped the dimensions of our participants’ life stories, see Table 2 and Table 3, cultural nearness affected Chinese and Mongolian participants’ life experiences. On the other hand, cultural distance from Korean culture also affected our Bangladeshi, Ecuadorian, and Ethiopian participants’ experiences by obliging them to continue to assume their original gender roles. Within the result of the study, we can argue that gender roles for our participants are persistent throughout their migration experience. However, there is an indication that conventional gender norms within Korea would have a transforming effect if the participants prolonged their stay.

For obvious reasons, cultural similarity or geographical nearness contributed positively to initial adjustments in Korea, and it also shaped the initial motives to move to Korea. For the participants from culturally distant countries, full scholarship or working opportunities, perceived safe environment, and family decision motivated the move to Korea.

Cultural fluency in the form of familiarity with Korean culture in its peculiarities and being able to communicate in Korean shaped the experiences of one Chinese participant, all the Mongolian participants, and the Ecuadorian participant. Here, we learned that these newly learned cultural fluency experiences also created a distance to originally held norms such as missing a culturally determined marriageable age. Cultural disfluency, on the other hand, shaped the rest of the participants’ lives differently. Culturally disfluent participants also missed out on a “Korean” cultural experience that would potentially turn their life in a different direction. In the meantime, however, culturally disfluent participants were dependent on their respective diasporas for social life.

Positive cultural experience is associated with comparative gain because of the move to Korea. Its pattern is expressed in the life convenience in the Mongolian participants, the feeling of safety and independence in the Bangladeshi and Ecuadorian participants. It is also possible to hypothesize that cultural disfluency and less cultural contact prevented the rest of the participants from having any different experiences at all. On the other hand, self-initiated cultural contact, as it was in the case of the Ecuadorian participant, could also create a cultural fluency even though she is situated in culturally distant situations.

The existence of a diaspora community before the participant’s move to Korea created a significant effect in the Mongolian, Bangladeshi, and Ethiopian participants’ lives. The effect displayed as the diaspora community provided social resources and social contacts for these newly migrated students or painted a picture of what life is like for new immigrants.

Generally, the move to Korea could be considered a turning point for female international students. However, for P3, a Chinese participant, and P9, an Ethiopian participant, the move does not amount to a life turning event. Here, less cultural contact and cultural disfluency could be mentioned as a contributory factor. The ascribed and prescribed turning for the Mongolian, Bangladeshi, and Ethiopian participants indicate an external influence that turned their lives. For the most part, however, we can understand that our participants’ lives turned within their power as they choose, improvise, and protract their life moves.

Adaptation or change of original behavior is found to be associated with the desire to have an abundant cultural experience, the need to stay longer in Korea, or as a requirement to survive life in Korea. The Mongolian participants’ special behavioral growth to the extent of “code-switching” indicates not only needing extra cultural experience to belong but the necessity of integration to the wider Korean society. In the case of the Bangladeshi participant, if it was not for her limited cultural contact, she would potentially resemble the adaptation patterns of the Mongolian participants. This adaptation type based on the explained “desire” is also affirmed in the Chinese participant who has the desire to continue her studies. The Ecuadorian participant, even though she portrayed the desire for a more cultural experience, only meant it was necessary while she is in Korea.

On the other side of this adaptation trait, indifference for future abundant cultural experience for the rest of Chinese participants and Ethiopian participants indicates no apparent adaptation trait development. However, it is important to understand that, even though these participants did not adapt to “Korean” life, they indeed have adjustments that they needed to undergo for the new life they created in Korea. It is also important to consider that they were situated in rare cultural contracting environments.

The structural upholding of the Korean identity is producing a demanding assimilation which is a strong pull to Korean likeliness and a requirement for any immigrant to abide by if they ever plan to reside long-term. The existence of a diaspora or geographical nearness to Korea, at least for some participants, helps the continuation and maintenance of the original cultural identity and original assumptions of gender roles to some degree. However, the structural design of the country does not guarantee a long-term maintenance of cultural characteristics for the immigrant. In the same line of argument, code-switching between original ethnic identity and the acquired Korean identity would appear a necessity for those economically pulled immigrants. Within the comparative look in Table 3, the common and different patterns based on cultural origin of the participants also indicate the intersection of the female experience with international studentship.

Practical Implications

Although it is in a female international student context, the results of this study highlighted the degree to which migrants’ quality of life could be affected in a racially and ethnically homogeneous host society such as Korea. The results of this study could also inform host societies and systems that a positive migration experience is achieved through creating the ability to incorporate and the sense of belongingness in the immigrant. Adjusting the difference between cultural nearness and cultural distance from the origin of the immigrant’s culture, encouraging the immigrant to be fluent of the host culture, and providing opportunities for positive cultural experience and cultural contact will guarantee a positive migration experience or a better quality of life for the immigrant. International students’ needs for belonging are highly associated with their host environments. When the need to belong is met, international students will show positive emotions, pro-social behavior, academic achievement, future occupational success, life satisfaction, and greater commitment to stay in the country of destination.

5. Conclusions

Through a life history analysis of female international students in Korea, this particular study rendered an analysis of migration experience in light of female experience, migrants, social wellbeing, gender role assumptions, and factors for a sense of belonging. According to the results of this study, the migration experience as a female international student in an ethnically homogeneous society had a peculiar character that directly had an impact on belongingness and the ability to incorporate. The experience (life course) of the participants in this study was shown to be affected by extremes of cultural nearness or distance, cultural fluency or disfluency, positive cultural experience, intense ethnic and cultural contact, and the existence of a diaspora. The overall migration experience as well as the actual sociocultural systems of Korea proved to turn the lives of the participants in a fashion that is ascribed or self-chosen, prescribed or improvised, quick or protracted. The students desire for an abundant “Korean” cultural experience, or rare cultural contact, their ability to code-switch, or their indifference for a cultural experience affected their adaptation and feeling of belonging.

Overall, the distinct ethnic characteristics of Korea as a host not only created a demanding pull to Korean ethnic identity assumed roles but it also brought a unique and transforming female experience. As migration may redirect or reward female gender roles, this study urges future studies to incorporate proper investigative discussions to understand the relativity of female experience within a distinctive and culturally demanding host countries.