Uyghur students in higher education in the USA: trauma and adaptation challenges

ABSTRACT

As the U.S. higher education student population continues to change and grow, universities need to be prepared to provide adequate support for their unique needs. Yet research has not kept pace with the growth, or the variety of international student experiences. Additionally, research on at-risk migrant and refugee students in higher education institutes (HEIs) has focused primarily on their access and barriers to it, and not on their experience after they enroll. Understanding these challenges is imperative for personnel working in American HEIs in order to provide a high-quality student experience and retain their international student population. This paper addresses these gaps by exploring the unique challenges of one specific refugee and asylum-seeking community in higher education in the United States, Uyghur university students from mainland China. The challenges these students face are identified through a qualitative study including Uyghur students in HEIs based throughout the United States. The paper shows that this student population faces some unique challenges impacting their university experience, and that higher education personnel tend to have a limited understanding of their needs, making it difficult to serve them adequately.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ For a thorough discussion of the political repression of Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang, see HRW, 2018; Roberts, 2018; Smith-Finley, 2019; Zenz, 2019.

² Confucius Institutes are Centers that provide Mandarin language and Chinese culture classes at host institutions outside of China. They are staffed in part with visiting teachers from China and funded by the Chinese government, with matching resources provided by the host institution. A number of U.S. universities host such institutes, with a total of 90 in existence across the US at their peak (Redden, 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rebecca Clothey

Rebecca Clothey, PhD is an associate professor of education and the associate department head in the Department of Global Studies and Modern Languages.

Brian McCommons

Brian McCommons is a PhD candidate in the Drexel University School of Education. Brian’s research is primarily on higher education and language issues with a particular focus on Latin America.