Discrimination As Perceived by International Students: A Phenomenological Exploration

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This book by Fr. Edison Fernandes takes the reader on a journey of crossing cultures and crisscrossing lives of nine international students who studied in the Philippines. It is a new world from a stranger's eyes, ears, and heart, in which he/she encounters people who may unexpectedly turn out to be friends, defenders, or critics, or even enemies. The book explores the concept of discrimination as felt and lived by international students and identifies the various manifestations or elements of this deemed discrimination.
The author explores this experience of discrimination from a vantage point of having been an international student himself, careful to keep his research distanced from the topic, but with a willingness to unearth deep feelings and attitudes. Through phenomenological research, he uncovers six major themes that he explains in detail in this interesting and absorbing book, and to which many readers will be able to identify with as part of their collection of memories and experiences of encounters with peoples and cultures different from their own.

Edison Fernandes, SDB is a Catholic priest belonging to the Religious Order of the Salesians of Don Bosco. He is currently based at Don Bosco Animation Centre, Benaulim, Goa (India) as Rector and Programme Director. He obtained a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Jnana Deepa (Pune) in 1990 and a PhD in Counselling Psychology (Major in Clinical Counselling) from the De La Salle University (Manila- Philippines) in 2007. His doctoral dissertation entitled "A enomenological Exploration of Discrimination as Perceived by International Students: Implications for Counselling Psychology" was awarded the gold medal for outstanding dissertation. He is visiting lecturer and holds the Chair of Psychology of Education at Divyadaan: Salesian Institute of Philosophy, Nashik. Besides pastoral work and teaching, he also offers seminars, counselling psychological assessment, group therapy, spiritual direction, workshops and retreats for religious leaders, teachers, youth, school students and the laity. He conducts workshops, therapy and seminars at various institutes in India and abroad.

International students have in recent years come to constitute a large proportion of the world-wide student body in higher learning institutions. There is hardly any country that is unaffected by the presence of international students in its institutions of higher learning, or the pressure to send some of its own students to study abroad.
However, international students are often thrust onto colleges and universities that place unsuspected challenges to their personal identity. At a time when nurturing of identity is so critical for the international students, they instead find themselves as minority in the midst of a dominant culture where there is prejudice, discrimination, and exploitation. Many countries have been facing problems of widespread discrimination against foreigners. Discrimination, prejudice, and bias serve as significant sources of stress and difficulty for many international students.
The widespread perception of the need to tackle the problem of discrimination against visiting students and academics is based largely on individual cases receiving media attention and on anecdotal reports. Furthermore, mass media that tend to focus on the most violent examples of discrimination, mainly directed against racial minorities, may contribute to perpetuating a belief that the incident must be of an extreme nature in order for it to constitute discrimination. There is no systematic evidence documenting the deeper meanings that this target group gives to their experiences of discrimination.
International students have valuable information to contribute from their minority and psychological perspectives. Understanding the deeper significance of discrimination as perceived by international students may be crucial to the success of counseling with international students; providing better student services, creating programs for International students and amending policy.
The review of literature suggests that, research on discrimination has been dominated by Eurocentric theorizing and Eurocentric models. Bulk of the literature comes from the work of a handful of researchers who are primarily located in North America. In addition, studies on perceived discrimination are dominated by experimental positivist paradigms and methodologies.