Mobility and immobility during COVID-19: A narrative inquiry into the wellness of international high school students in Canada

Abstract

Through the conceptual and analytical lens of intersectionality, this article explores the wellness of international high school students (IHSS) in Canada during COVID-19. Two research questions guided this study: 1) What does wellness mean to IHSS? and 2) How did the pandemic impact their wellness? We employed narrative inquiry as our methodology and the three commonplaces of narrative inquiry—temporality, sociality, and place—set dimensions for our inquiry. In-depth interviews were conducted with thirty IHSS from 11 different countries and two focus groups with international student coordinators in a public schoolboard in Western Canada. Our research reveals that transnational mobility and pandemic-induced immobility clashed and compounded to generate new layers of understanding of wellness for IHSS through their lived experiences. Anchoring in participants’ understanding of wellness as something that allows one to utilize potentials and thrive in life, we analyzed the impacts of transnational mobility and immobility on their physical, social, mental, and emotional wellness. Our findings show that the immobility incurred by COVID lockdowns crippled an extensive range of learning opportunities for accumulating the intellectual, social, and cultural capitals that IHSS wished to pursue through transnational mobility. It also accentuated and compounded the challenges associated with transnational mobility, which were manifested in social, emotional, mental, and physical dimensions. Implications of the study include practical recommendations for developing educational strategies, resources, and policies at the micro, meso, and macro levels to better support IHSS.

Keywords:

• Mobility
• immobility
• international high school students
• wellness
• COVID-19

Introduction

While the COVID-19 pandemic has been non-selective in its infection targets, its consequences have nonetheless wreaked the worst havoc on the most vulnerable (Schleicher, 2020). International high school students (IHSS) are one of these most vulnerable groups in the Canadian K-12 education system according to a scoping literature review on research with IHSS (Lou, 2023a). Prior to the pandemic, research studies conducted in BC, Ontario, and the USA revealed that adolescent international students experienced severe social isolation and cultural alienation (Schecter & Bell, 2021), high academic pressure (Kim & Okazaki, 2014), strained parental relations and identity struggles (Lee & Wentz, 2019), conflict with host family and custodians (Jing et al., 2022), limited English proficiency (Sheehan & Riddle, 2022), and a lack of social support (Brunsting et al., 2019), particularly the non-instrumental support that could effectively address their social and cultural struggles (Wu & Zheng, 2021).

Following the outbreak of the pandemic, all Canadian K-12 classes were cancelled and transitioned to remote learning in Spring 2020. The mass school closures were found to have left deleterious imprint on the student engagement and psychological health. A national representative survey conducted in the US showed that over a quarter of them felt disconnected to school adults or classmates (Margolius et al., 2020). Coupled with the risk of learning disengagement was an increase of psychological distress such as anxiety and depression during the school closures (Pikulski et al., 2020). In addition, to the adolescents of Asian descent, the COVID 19 anti-Asian racism engendered ‘synergistic stress’ from both the pandemic and the anti-Asian racism which compounded their existing mental health strain (Cheng et al., 2021, p. 631).

Missing in the emerging pandemic literature is its impact on the IHSS. This article addresses this gap by exploring the experiences of IHSS and their wellness in Canada during COVID-19. Two research questions guided this study: 1) What does wellness mean to IHSS? and 2) How did the pandemic impact students’ experiences of wellness? It provides practical recommendations for developing educational strategies, resources, and policies at the micro, meso, and macro levels to support IHSS.

Theoretical frameworks

This study was informed by three theoretical frameworks: student voice, adolescent wellness, and intersectionality. To guide our analysis, we adopted the theoretical framework of student ‘voice’ that offers a way of exploring school improvement from the student’s perspective. Voice is closely linked to agency, entailing an active involvement in the decision-making and implementation of educational policies and practices (Holdsworth, 2000) through a sharing of power (Cook-Sather, 2006). Researchers argue that student ‘voice’ has the potential to include ethnically marginalized youth in decision-making processes (Cammarota & Romero, 2011) and cultivate youth agency and civic engagement (Brasof & Spector, 2016).

We also draw on theorizations of youth wellbeing through a sociological lens. There is a lack of agreement on the conceptualization and operationalization of wellbeing (Dodge et al., 2012). Wyn (2009) identified two dichotomous approaches to conceptualizing wellbeing: a) wellbeing as a fixed psychological category situated within individuals, and b) wellbeing as a social process shaped by the relationship between an individual and their social and physical environment. The former approach has been criticized for its subjection to the neoliberal accountability rhetoric (McLeod & Wright, 2016). Given our interest in gleaning an understanding of the social and environmental factors that inform our participants’ evolving experiences of wellness during the pandemic, we embrace the relational approach conceptualizing wellness as encompassing physical, social, emotional, and mental dimensions. It is worth noting that the terms ‘well-being’ and ‘wellness’ are often used interchangeably in the literature. In this study, we adopt the term ‘wellness’ to emphasize our commitment to a holistic and comprehensive sense of overall well-being.

Another theoretical framework that informs our study is the theory of intersectionality (Cho et al., 2013; Crenshaw, 1991). Intersectionality initially emerged from a critique of the failure of gender- and race-based research to address the experience of subjects who embody conflicting dynamics at neglected points of intersection (McCall, 2005). In the past 30 years, it has evolved into an interdisciplinary approach to conducting empirical research that captures the interaction of categories of difference such as race, gender, and class (Hancock, 2007). Employing intersectionality as an analytical lens allows us to explore how race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and national origin interact to influence students’ experiences.

Methodology

We employ narrative inquiry, ‘the study of experience understood narratively’ (Clandinin et al., 2016, p. 15), as our methodological approach. Clandinin and Huber’s (2010) three commonplaces of narrative inquiry—temporality, sociality, and place—set dimensions for our inquiry. Data sources include a) in-depth interviews with thirty IHSS from 13 different high schools in a public schoolboard in Western Canada (henceforth WBC); b) two focus groups with 7 WBC international student coordinators; and c) student artefacts including photos of self-made food and craftwork, screenshots of social media postings, and excerpts of creative writing in the student’s home language. We recruited the 30 student participants via invitation letters distributed by the international student coordinators. The 30 student participants came from 11 countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, South Korea, Thailand, Uganda, and Vietnam. Among them, 18 were female and 12 were male. Their length of stay in Canada ranged from four months to four years and two months. All interviews were conducted via Microsoft Meetings outside regular school time and in the following 6 languages: English, Chinese, Korean, Italian, Spanish, and Vietnamese. All participants were invited to select a pseudonym before the interview. The three investigators include one professor of Chinese ethnicity (Dr. Yan Guo) with rich research experience in educational integration of immigrant and refugee children and youth, one associate professor who is a Canadian-born and raised white scholar (Dr. Erin Spring) specialized in interdisciplinary studies on youth literacies and cultures, and one PhD candidate of Chinese ethnicity (Yingling Lou) who also works as a high school international student coordinator. The team collaborated on a rigorous three-phase data analysis process. In Phase 1, each investigator independently read and coded 10 transcripts to identify emergent themes. In Phase 2, they collaborated to identify common themes and selected some for further exploration. A holistic synthesis of thematic findings was developed in Phase 3, along with implications. Trustworthiness and reliability were established and promoted through researcher triangulation and critical reflexivity throughout the research process. The three investigators brought different conceptual perspectives into the study which triangulated the data theoretically (Flick, 2018). To ensure that the researcher assumptions and biases were rigorously examined, all research interviewers had recorded a detailed and candid reflection of each interview within 15 minutes of the interview completion.

Findings

Multifaceted understandings of wellness

Overall, our participants demonstrated multifaceted and multilayered understandings of wellness, encompassing physical, mental, and emotional wellness, and the alignment of the body, mind, and consciousness. In defining a personal understanding of wellness, many participants embodied the notion in relatable objects/concepts that most concerned them. Wellness was equated with academic success, outdoor exercise, mobility, physical health, being stress-free about school, being free of boredom, being happy and making others happy, loving and caring relationships along with freedom to explore and follow one’s heart, mental health, self-confidence, acceptance, and alignment of consciousness, body, and mind.

To Joan, wellness was a non-judgemental awareness of one’s emotions and reconciliation of the inner emotional state with the outer environment when there was discord. This was echoed by Kyle, who defined wellness as alignment of consciousness, body and mind and acceptance of reality:

Wellness for me, starts with acceptance. It starts with accepting this is what we are, this is the position that you are in, the body and mind that you are in and knowing how to align those two things up to work for you because your consciousness, your body and mind are three completely different things. They are all working for their own benefits. But being able to get them all into the same place is being well within yourself. (Kyle)

Sam offered a transcending insight into the concept by perceiving wellness from an outcome-oriented lens. When you are well, ‘then you can really thrive in life and utilize your potential’ (Sam). We anchored our data analysis in this transcending understanding of wellness.

Impact on physical wellness

The immobile lifestyle, paired with fear and anxiety, impaired many participants’ physical wellness. Not being able to play sports and exercise was particularly hard on Oscar, T, Sam, Luna, and Rene, as Sam explained, ‘when you don’t have that [sports], then both physically and mentally, it can damage you’. All of them found their immune system weakened. For Ramen, however, COVID has inflicted more than a mere deprivation of exercise on his physical wellness. Due to travel restrictions, his parents, who had gone back to Vietnam for a brief visit, ended up stranded there, leaving Ramen and his brother to fend for themselves to meet daily needs. This unexpected situation proved to be a daunting challenge for the brothers, who were completely unprepared to meet their daily needs on their own. As a result of poor living conditions, malnutrition, and a disrupted routine, Ramen’s physical wellness was significantly compromised.

At that time, we’re really lazy and, you know, Grade 8 kid, when they don’t have parents, they play game a lot like video games. That time was so messy. Our house was so dirty. Oh, so bad, we just look at each other. We’re like, nah, I’m not doing this. You’re doing that. We’re not even eating. Some days we just eat one meal, and that’s it. Only one. Yeah, we were lazy to cook. We don’t do anything except playing video games. That’s how I call it depression. (Ramen)

Masking-wearing and disinfecting routines, which were put in place to protect our physical health, had also proved to be physically taxing for many participants. For example, Sofia struggled with breathing as she climbed stairs at school, while Zee found it difficult to hear others clearly through a mask. Diana went to great lengths to disinfect herself and belongings after returning home, which proved to be a significant physical burden.

The moment you get back home, you disinfect your entire body and take a shower, which is very burdensome. […] Every single object must be thoroughly disinfected with those disinfecting wipes before I brought them home. (Diana)

Impact on social wellness

To many new international students, making friends, especially with native speakers, was a major challenge that undermined their social wellness even prior to the pandemic as exemplified in the following participants’ stories. San Si was discriminated by her own ethnic social circle because of her newbie status which placed her at the bottom of the totem pole as the earlier-arrived international students would despise the new arrivals. Vee, a Ugandan who spoke English as her mother tongue, struggled to find a social group to fit in. The other international students whom she could hang out with ‘because they know how it feels to leave your home and come here’ were mostly from Asia who were lacking in English proficiency. Kyle, another Ugandan girl, initially sought out other African students who are second generation African immigrants. However, she remarked that ‘because there are so few, the ones that I interacted with made me dislike them more’. To her dismay, in contrast to her pride in her African identity, these few second-generation immigrant girls carried a cultural bias against their own African ethnicity. They internalized Black/Africa racism and viewed Africa as backward. One Nigerian girl told Kyle that ‘black girls are scary’, internalizing ‘the sight of Black bodies inculcates fear’ (Dei, 2021, p. 5). This experience made Kyle consciously distance herself from domestic African students.

However, COVID lockdowns and other health measures such as social distancing and cancelled bus routes significantly exacerbated the situation. Three participants (Oscar, Joan, Teagan) considered not being able to hang out with friends as the biggest challenge of the COVID lockdown. To Joan, the abrupt social disconnection also shut off her main channel through which she learned about the host society and culture. Jason echoed the same sentiment. To him, social interaction serves as an opportunity to glean information necessary to connect with peers.

I think that [acculturation] was also affected by COVID because all my friends teach me is what is famous in Canada right now and what they are like watching on or focusing on. However, if you do not have my friends around me today, you can’t really know what’s going on in Canada. (Jason)

Leo acknowledged that domestic students were also negatively affected by the lack of socializing opportunities due to COVID but added that international students were hit harder since peer interactions are the primary way for international students to acquire English in a natural and authentic way. Friends are also their major source of emotional support when parents are not within reach. Even worse, they can no longer lean on their old friends in their home countries for emotional support because of a lack of common interest:

I still talk to my friend in Vietnam but not a lot because we don’t have the same topic right now because you know one in Canada, one in Vietnam. We don’t have the same topics. (Air)

Impact on mental/emotional wellness

The immobility resulted from the COVID shutdowns afflicted, if not ravaged, most participants’ mental and emotional wellness. Participants used a plethora of vocabulary to depict their mental states and emotions during the shutdowns: depression, fear, boredom, confusion, disorientation, to name a few. Out of fear for the virus, Oscar self-imposed 3-month home imprisonment without stepping out the door, which distressed his ‘whole being’. X also locked herself indoors for over a month. Teagan’s quote below sheds light on how her mental-emotional wellness suffered from a double whammy of the social isolation inflicted by the COVID-induced immobility and the resultant loss of opportunities that her paid transnational mobility were supposed to grant her.

I have to stay in my place and then study on the laptop and didn’t talk to anyone. I feel like a little bit depressed because for me I need someone to talk to… and it affected my mental health because it made me feel that I was alone. And honestly, sometimes I cried because of that, because I came to Canada to provide an opportunity for myself, but then, because of COVID, had to stay at home and I lost many of them. (Teagan)

There was one particular emotion universally experienced by all participants—heightened homesickness. This feeling of homesickness was more fervently expressed among the unaccompanied participants understandably. As Luna put it, ‘it was a real anguish not to be able to see your family after such a long time of separation’. At the time of interview, many participants had not been able to return home and see their families for years as a result of compounded effects of travel restrictions, quarantine mandates both to and from, risk of catching COVID on the flight, and skyrocketing airline flight prices.

Silver lining of the pandemic on mental/emotional wellness

For San Si, the immobile lifestyle during the lockdowns prompted her to cultivate her new hobby—baking, which eventually boosted her sense of self-value and self-esteem because ‘I felt a sense of being needed when I shared my baked cake with friends’. For her, the immobility during the lockdowns, which was crippling to most participants, turned out to be an emotionally and mentally nurturing experience.

I also want to learn psychology because I want to help people like me. That’s why ever since Grade 12, I’ve been working very hard trying to get into the university, all because I’ve found my goal… Without the pandemic, everyone’s life pace would’ve been fast, except mine. Pandemic slowed everyone down, which made me feel I wasn’t left behind. I then had time to turn inward for self-reflection and self-edification…So the pandemic provided me with time to think about and plan my life journey. (San Si)

For Tea, COVID has made her turn inward rather than outward for strength and support. As a result, she felt she might be more resilient than other students during the pandemic when many of the external resources were out of reach.

Intersectional effects on wellness

Our research highlights how the pandemic intersected with a variety of factors, including gender, race, culture, puberty, class, religion, and socioeconomic status, to shape international secondary students’ experiences of wellness during 2020–2022. This is particularly evident in the cases of Ben, a Grade 10 Chinese international student, and Molly, a Grade 11 international student from Cambodia. Both students have faced unique challenges in adapting to the pandemic-era socio-educational landscape, with their experiences shaped by factors such as race, gender, cultural norms, adolescence, and class. By examining the intersectionality of these factors, we can gain a deeper, more empathetic understanding of how the pandemic has affected different groups of international students and develop more inclusive and equitable strategies for supporting their wellness and academic success.

‘Never want to go on the bus again’—intersections of class, gender, culture, religion, and COVID

Molly was one of the three participants who preferred online learning to in-person learning. She attributed her dislike for in-person learning largely to her strong aversion to bus riding, which was partially due to COVID and also because of her distain for crowds and outdoor spaces. It was revealed that back in Bangladesh, she was driven and escorted everywhere, as it was considered inappropriate and dangerous for a girl to walk alone outdoors. While Molly did not explicitly share the reasons behind her aversion to crowds and public transport, a deeper examination of her background and culture could help shed light on her perspective. News and travel blogs about Bangladesh revealed that Molly’s wealthy family background, her father’s position as a government official, her gender, and her cultural norms all intersected with the pandemic to create this strong aversion to bus travel and, consequently, attending school.

I hate going on the bus. I never want to go on the bus again. I’ve never taken a bus back home. It was actually a big part of why I never wanted to wake up and go to school. It was just too crowded, too many people. Well mainly because of COVID, but not just that. I just don’t feel good like being in outdoor settings, which is weird. I think that’s mainly why I prefer online schooling too. (Molly)

‘[With Asian-hate news on the media], I started to drift away from my local friends’.—intersections of race, gender, adolescence, and COVID

The news of COVID-induced Asian-hate had estranged Ben from his local non-Asian friends whom he used to hang out with before the pandemic. Sensing the imminent racial-antagonization from school peers, Ben and his Asian male friends formed a clique as a proactive action for mutual empowerment and support even though they had not experienced any overt racial attacks within the school building. This precautionary ‘self-defence clique’ can be seen as an instinctual coping mechanism deeply rooted in our DNA as Homo Sapiens, triggered by the perception of imminent danger. However, in this case, the intersection of race, gender, adolescence, COVID, and media created this perceived racial tension between Ben and his non-Asian friends, which not only hampered Ben’s social wellness but also his intercultural integration in Canada. Additionally, the fear of potential racial attacks and the need to form a ‘self-defence clique’ created an additional burden for Ben, taking up emotional and cognitive resources that he could have otherwise used to focus on his studies and personal growth.

I used to hang out with some local friends, and after the Asian-hate on the news, the Asians in my school started to form cliques for proactive self-protection and mutual empowerment and support. Since then, I sort of started to drift away from my local friends. We still say hello, but just don’t hang out anymore. (Ben)

Student voice

Our findings highlight the barriers IHSS face in sharing their experiences with teachers or school management more broadly. This is despite the fact that students were aware of their situation, their new identity as international students or ‘their newly assigned racialized identity’ (Yao et al., 2023, p. 81), as well as how race, class or language impacted their adjustment in the school system. Belying the rhetoric of equity and fairness that underpins the Canadian school system, academic setbacks, social isolation, emotional distress, discrimination and marginalization pervaded these students’ lives. While some students mentioned having conversations with teachers about mental health concerns and language barriers, by and large the kind of nurturing and enabling environment required to cultivate student voice seemed to be absent. For example, Molly, a 16-year-old student pointedly and powerfully emphasized this issue:

I think for me, I feel like the system doesn’t allow us to speak. I feel we don’t even have a voice on what’s going on. We have no rights. We can’t do anything. We just go to school. And it feels like really engulfing, you know, backed against a wall, like people watching us […] I just want to feel more accepted. And that’s why I love my friends so much, because they don’t make me feel weird about being an international student. (Molly)

Discussion

Our participants had a multifaceted, multidimensional, and holistic understanding of wellness. For them, it encompassed academic, physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional components, which are often difficult to disentangle. No specific feature of wellness privileged the rest; instead, all components were interrelated.

While only one participant (René) reported having caught COVID at the time of the interview, the study’s results revealed that the pandemic had a detrimental impact on the physical wellness of 23 participants. This impact manifested in a range of ways. First, the lack of physical activity due to lockdowns weakened immune systems leading to physical and mental health problems. Second, students who had to adjust to new living conditions or take on additional responsibilities due to the pandemic also experienced compromised physical wellness. In addition, the masking and disinfecting routines, though necessary, proved physically taxing for many participants, causing breathing and communication difficulties as well as significant physical burden while disinfecting themselves and belongings. Finally, the study also highlights how pre-existing health conditions like sickle cell anemia can exacerbate the fear and anxiety of catching COVID-19. It is worth noting, however, that the impact of COVID on physical wellness was not uniform for all participants. For San Si who suffered from severe social disorder/anxiety, the immobile lifestyle enabled her to sleep for 12 hours, which she believed benefited her physical wellness.

Although the virus did not directly compromise the physical wellness of majority of the participants, thanks to all the containment measures, our findings suggest that these measures were more of a Pyrrhic victory than a decisive one in light of all the deleterious impacts incurred. Our research offers valuable and in-depth evidence, directly from the voices of students, for policy makers and the public to consider when assessing the effectiveness and effects of Alberta’s response to the pandemic.

Socially, our participants reported multiple external barriers to relating positively to others even before the pandemic. Lack of English competence and lack of common beliefs and interests due to cultural distance are two of the main contributing factors to their challenges in building friendships with native speakers. In addition, English Language Learning (ELL) classes were found to be further limiting their chances for interaction with local peers (e.g. T and Yogun). However, relationship within the ethnic community was not struggle-free either. Some new international students faced discrimination and ostracism from within their own ethnic community based on their newcomer status (e.g. San Si). International students from Africa faced challenges in finding compatible social groups as some second-generation African immigrant students were found to hold internalized racism and negative attitudes towards their own ethnicity (e.g. Kyle’s peers). After the onset of COVID-19, while the virus impacted individuals universally, the implemented containment measures such as lockdowns and social distancing disproportionately affected the social wellness of adolescent international students. These students heavily rely on interpersonal interactions as their primary avenue for language acquisition, gaining knowledge about the host culture, and seeking emotional support in the absence of parental guidance. As a result, the restrictions placed a discriminatory burden on their social wellness.

Amidst restricted physical interactions, particularly during the lock-down, the Internet played a dominant role in building and maintaining the international students’ social relationships that were cut off by COVID. According to Scott et al. (2022) research on the impact of online interaction during the COVID-19 lockdown on the social wellness of Australian youths, transitioning from primarily face-to-face communication to digital interactions resulted in reduced satisfaction with friendships, leading to heightened loneliness and diminished social connectedness. Our own study supports these findings in general, as evidenced by the significant disparity in social connectedness levels between participants who arrived before the pandemic and those who joined in September 2021 after school resumed near-normal in-person learning. The latter group (8 participants in total) had reported no salient COVID-related negative impacts on their social wellness, although establishing deep friendship with local students was just as challenging for most participants in both groups regardless of their English competence and ethnic background. However, there was one exceptional case—a Grade 12 student from China (Tea) who reported having built deep, nourishing social relationship with her peers through an online space—a writing club she and several other Chinese international students around the world organized. The deep bond Tea shared with what she called ‘soulmates’ in this space went beyond the physical and was rooted spiritually. Hence, the deprivation of physical connection had no impact on Tea’s social wellness. On the contrary, the immobile lifestyle afforded them with more time to foster the deep bond. Tea’s experience offers an interesting perspective on the potentials of digital communication in fostering nourishing, meaningful relationships for adolescents.

Participants called for schools to step in and play their part in sustaining students’ social wellness through specific social supports that include a) teaching international students how to decipher Canadian social cues, b) advocating school extracurricular activities to international students, and c) motivating shy students to make friends and connecting them to peers.

The COVID-19 shutdowns resulted in immobility which had a severe impact on the mental and emotional wellness of the participants. Self-imposed home imprisonment was a coping mechanism for some students to avoid catching the virus, but it caused distress to their overall wellness. The social isolation caused by the COVID-induced immobility and the loss of opportunities that the paid transnational mobility was supposed to provide negatively affected the mental and emotional health of most students. They reflected on unbridled screen-time and an overwhelming amount of time spent alone, often in isolation, away from their families and friends. While they were able to connect with their families and friends via technologies such as texts, audio, and video, they did not feel that these moments of connection could replace in-person interactions. The data indicates a need for mental and emotional support and resources to address the long-term impact of the pandemic on the wellness of IHSS.

While the school board where we conducted our study perceived student voice as integral to student success, our interviews revealed that this perception did not go beyond ‘surface compliance’ (Rudduck, 2007, p. 607). In our critique of student voice, we observed that it is only successful when students feel they are an integral part of a learning community. It was evident throughout the interviews that if IHSS were feeling overanxious about their identity in the new country and struggling to fit into the hegemonic norms and values of the school system, then schools would need a ‘more accomplished way of recognizing young people’s capabilities, hooking into their thinking, and harnessing their insights’ (Rudduck, 2007, p. 588).

Conclusion and implications

Our research reveals that transnational mobility and pandemic-induced immobility clashed and compounded to generate new layers of understanding of wellness for IHSS through their lived experiences. Anchoring in a sociological understanding of wellness premised on student voice, we analyzed the impacts of transnational mobility and immobility on their wellness through the intersectional lenses of race, adolescence, gender, nationality, and class. Our findings show that the immobility incurred by COVID lockdowns crippled an extensive range of learning opportunities for accumulating the intellectual, social, and cultural capitals that IHSS wished to pursue through transnational mobility. It also accentuated and compounded the challenges associated with transnational mobility, which were manifested in social, emotional, mental, and physical dimensions.

Despite the receding impact of the pandemic, the challenges that were amplified during this global crisis continue to persist. The voices of IHSS during the pandemic offer valuable insights for stakeholders and policymakers to move forward in the post-pandemic world, particularly in light of the significant resurgence in the mobility of international students worldwide. For instance, Canada witnessed a substantial increase in the number of international students in 2022 compared to 2019 (Moosapeta, 2023). At the micro level, educators need to a) avoid homogenizing IHSS and be aware of each individual IHSS’ distinct learning needs that embody intersecting factors such as race, gender, culture, religion, class, and puberty, b) respect and leverage international student voice to effect school-wide changes as opposed to listening to only those who are socially competent and ‘who speak the language of the school’ (Rudduck, 2007, p. 591), c) provide regular socio-emotional check-ins on IHSS wellness (Hoke et al., 2022), and d) establish peer support networks and mentorship programs. At the meso level, school boards and provincial governments need to bolster mental health services and resources to help IHSS. The governments can provide more helplines in multiple languages and hire multilingual counselors and psychologists to provide mental health support to international students in their mother tongue. At the macro level, the pandemic has demonstrated the need for long-term planning and preparedness for potential future disruptions. Policymakers should invest in strategies that build resilience, strengthen emergency response plans, and ensure continuity of quality support services for international students during times of crisis. Policymakers should also encourage and support research initiatives that focus on the wellness and cross-cultural adaptation of minor international students, a group that is currently understudied in the educational policy discourses (Lou, 2023a). Finally, there is an urgent need for policymakers to support initiatives that promote diversity, inclusion, and intercultural competence among all students in the post-pandemic world (e.g. positioning all learners as intercultural citizens, Lou, 2023b).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Alberta Education.

Notes on contributors

Yan Guo

Dr. Yan Guo is Professor in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. She specializes in school integration of immigrant and refugee children and youth. Her publications include Home-school relations: International perspectives (2018), Spotlight on China: Changes in education under China’s market economy (2016) and Spotlight on China: Chinese education in the globalized world (2016).

Yingling Lou

Yingling Lou is a PhD candidate at the University of Calgary. Her research interests lie in the areas of cross-cultural adaptation challenges, power imbalance, and identity negotiation of marginalized adolescents in secondary classrooms. Her recent work on researching international students with critical realism has been published in Journal of International Students.

Erin Spring

Dr. Erin Spring is an Associate Professor in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. Erin’s research seeks to understand the ways in which young people make sense of their identities. Her research projects are united thematically by a shared investment in stories and storytelling as a way of articulating identity, with a particular focus on place.